Arianespace captured 72 percent of orders booked last year, and half of all commercial launches to geostationary orbit, according to Arianespace chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall, speaking to journalists.

There will be six to eight missions of the heavy lifter Ariane 5 this year, Le Gall estimated.

As well, Arianespace plans this year to see the first flight of the medium lift Soyuz, he said. There have been 28 consecutive mission successes for Ariane 5 and the 21 for Soyuz.

But Le Gall sees some difficulties ahead during economic weakness, including a slowing of overall order volume in the aerospace industry, a downward trend in the size and weight of payloads to be orbited, and the freezing of certain satellite programs by new or start-up operators.

Ariane 5 missions this year will include the launch of TerreStar-1 (which is one of the world’s largest commercial communications satellites) as a solo passenger on a dedicated launcher. Another single-customer mission this year will carry the European Space Agency’s Herschel astronomy space telescope

He also sees a trend to lighter-weight satellites.