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A.P.P. Arianespace Maiaspace Nucletudes Pyroalliance Sodern
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A.P.P. Arianespace Maiaspace Nucletudes Pyroalliance Sodern

2016 : A record year for Ariane 5

Launching Ariane

21.12.2016

Reliability record: Ariane 5 has just completed its 76th successful consecutive launch. Flexibility record: – 2 single-satellite launches, – 4 dual launches, – 1 quadruple launch for Galileo. Performance record, with a payload capacity of more than 10.7 tonnes.

For its 7th and last launch of the year, Ariane 5 successfully completed its mission from the European space port of Kourou (French Guiana) for the 76th consecutive time, placing two telecommunications satellites in geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).

This time, the launch performance achieved by this Ariane 5 ECA was 10,722 kg in GTO (of which approximatively 9,830 kg was accounted for by the satellites)

 

Operational in the field of commercial launchers since 2015, Airbus Safran Launchers became a fully-fledged 50-50 joint venture company on 1st July 2016. Its organization was definitively completed on 30th November 2016, when Airbus Safran Launchers became a 74% majority shareholder of Arianespace. This new governance makes possible an overall approach to market needs, from launcher design and construction up to commercialization, thus reinforcing industrial efficiency and operational flexibility, for the benefit of Arianespace’s customers.

 

Ariane 5 is the spearhead of European know-how and one of the most wide-ranging and ambitious space programs in the world. Its flexibility enables it to transport heavy payloads into low Earth orbit, several satellites into medium Earth orbit or, as it is the case today, one or two satellites into geostationary transfer orbit with an optimized lifetime.

 

Airbus Safran Launchers is lead contractor for the Ariane 5 launchers. The company coordinates an industrial network of more than 550 companies in 12 European countries (including more than 100 SMEs). Airbus Safran Launchers oversees the entire industrial chain, from management of launcher performance upgrades, to production management, to final adjustment with supply of the mission flight software. This chain includes equipment and structures, engines manufacturing, integration of the various stages and finally launcher integration in French Guiana.

Airbus Safran Launchers is also industrial lead contractor for Europe’s future Ariane 6 launcher, which is scheduled for a first flight in 2020 and which will replace Ariane 5 in about 2023.