This year, Arianespace will be looking to a section of the globe spanning from Eastern Africa to the U.S. Pacific Coast as its next major target market, according to chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall.

   “Globally, I think demand will not increase so much but there is a move in the areas of demand,” Le Gall told Satellite News. “We are moving from a situation where demand was spread equally in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia to demand that is moving more towards Middle East and Asia.”

   In the following interview, Le Gall discusses the health of the launch industry, the future of Arianespace’s older rockets and the development of its new vehicles.

 

 

Le Gall: The first two flights of the Soyuz went off perfectly. The Soyuz flight on Dec. 16, on which we launched six satellites for Globalstar, went particularly well. The first launch of Vega on Feb. 13 was also perfect and we couldn’t be happier. We have six or seven Vega launches planned following the first launch. We’ll have five Soyuz launches this year — two of which will be from Baikonur. The reason for this is because we can only sustain about three or four Soyuz launches out of French Guiana per year. We have seen an extraordinary success with Soyuz launches, so we need to schedule the overflow for Baikonur. In fact, we have our next Soyuz launch from Baikonur on May 24 to send the Metop-B satellite into orbit. We also have a considerably strong contract partnership with the European Commission to launch 12 Galileo satellites.

 

 

Le Gall: Despite the fact that there are more companies getting involved with the launch sector, we see that our competitors are having the same difficulties they’ve had for some time. Most people say the new competitors will impact pricing, but the prices for our Ariane 5 have been quite stable for some time. I believe that prices will be increasing for our competitors, while quality is decreasing. Six or seven years ago, a Proton launch was less than $50 million. Now, Proton launch costs have more than doubled to $110 million. We have always had a very specific business model to provide stability and I think that our customers have accepted this business model. They may have an interest for new commerce in the global market, but when a customer signs with us, that customer knows their projects will be launched on the time. They also know that in three years, when it is time to launch, our financial situation will not be any different than it was when they signed.

 

 

Le Gall: I think so. We think that the launch market will be quite robust this year because we see many projects in Asia — specifically in the region that extends from the Arabic Gulf to the western coast of California. I was in Dubai two weeks ago and saw many projects and potential partnerships — YahSat, Arabsat, projects for small satellites, etc. — almost every country has something that can be launched. These regions also feature an extremely active manufacturing sector. For example, we’re launching the second satellite for Vietnam [Vinasat-2] just three years after the launch of Vinasat-1. That satellite was supposed to arrive at our door six years after the first one, but it is already here. In many Asian countries, there is a need for space telecommunications simply because of the market growth rate. It may be surprising to some that our long-term launch distribution, by region, is projected to be 25 percent with U.S.-based customers, 25 percent for European customers and the remaining 50 percent from this region in Asia, which includes the gulf states.

 

 

Le Gall: We’re supporting growth in Africa by launching the New Dawn satellites for the Intelsat and Convergence Partners joint ventures. We’re also launching O3b Networks’ constellation satellites to provide broadband services to all of these emerging markets. In South America, we’re launching all of the satellites for Star One and we’re set to launch Amazonas-3 for Hispasat. None of these markets are being overlooked.

 

 

Le Gall: We will be continuing with the Ariane 5’s current design in the medium- and long-term timeline. We have strong support from European governments for the utilization of the Ariane 5. There are some voices in Europe calling for a follow-on version of the Ariane 5 or an upgrade, but what I see as the real positive aspect is that there is a commitment from European governments to support the European launch industry and there is loyalty to the Ariane 5 that was created by its reliability.

 

Le Gall: Yes. Germany wants to help devise a European alternative to the final, fourth stage of Vega, which is the RD-869 re-startable engine that is built in Ukraine. Much of the motivation behind developing Vega was to enhance Europe’s independent capability to access space. So, some say that we should not be importing the component. It is going to take time to explore. I wouldn’t expect a change in the next five years, during which Vega will fly with the current Ukrainian engine. Vega, as it is designed today, fits with the market needs.

 

Le Gall:  The success of the inaugural firing of Vega should unlock contracts that we have on hold and I am confident that we will sign several contracts in 2012. There were a number of cases that were on standby, which will materialize now that we have the first successful launch.