The Ariane 5 Launcher Integration Building (at left), with the Final Assembly Building in the background. Photo: Arianespace

[Via Satellite 12-10-13] Arianespace is starting the construction of a New Filling Hall (known by its French acronym NBR, for Nouveau Bâtiment de Remplissage) following the approval of its board of directors on Nov. 6 2013, and the approval received Dec. 6 2013 from French space agency CNES, the Guiana Space Center (CSG) landowner.

The new building will be dedicated to filling propellants on Soyuz’s upper stage, Fregat. It will be built as part of the Soyuz launch complex, and should be ready in the first half of 2015. Once this new building is ready, the facilities currently used for propellant filling on Fregat will be used to prepare payloads for the three launchers operated by Arianespace: Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega. The ultimate purpose of this new building is to increase Arianespace’s annual launch capacity by accelerating Soyuz mission preparations and reducing the time interval between missions.