Arianespace was the world's first commercial space launch provider and is now one of the largest space launch companies globally, with facilities in French Guyana and Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The company operates the Ariane and Vega families of launchers and is one of the most recognisable names in space industry.
ADM Publisher Ewen Levick recently spoke with CEO Stéphane Israël about the company's next moves.
ADM: What are the major global opportunities in front of Arianespace?
The key opportunity for us now is to introduce our new launchers, Vega C and Ariane 6. Vega C Maiden Flight shall take place July 13th from the Guiana Space Center. Ariane 6 will come a little later in 2023 and we know that these launchers will make us able to address any orbit at any time for any mass. Ariane 6 has already proven to be adapted to commercial needs in the classical telecom market, and we have examples with Optus 11, which will be launched by Ariane 6, and also with Amazon’s constellation.
So I would say the opportunities are these: to capture all market opportunities with Ariane 6 which will come on the telecom market and the Australasian market. Vega will be perfectly adapted to Australasian earth observation satellites. As I am here in Sydney in Australia, I can say that we are highly motivated to be here.
In Australia we have a very long lasting partnership. The journey began 35 years ago in 1987 with the predecessor of Optus and since 1987 we have launched six satellites for Optus, including all their satellites from the year 2000 to now. We have on top of that launched two satellites for the National Broadband Network. We now have the honour to have been entrusted for Optus 11: Optus is one of the first customers of the Ariane 6 rocket, which will be launched in 2023.
So eight satellites launched, 100 per cent market share since the beginning of the year 2000, all successful launches, and Optus 11 is going into space on Ariane 6. So Australia is really a success story for us and the next step will be obviously to deliver for the JP 9102 project. We hope that we are a strong contender and I can testify on the motivation of Arianespace for this offer.
ADM: Can you outline Arianespace’s involvement in JP 9102 more specifically?
We have delivered proposals to all the contenders - and we are now waiting for the selection of one. We will see how the chosen prime makes a proposal for the launcher. At the end of the day the final decision belongs to the Australian Department of Defence. Up to now, what we have done is to deliver our own proposal to each and every contractor for this very important opportunity.
ADM: Have any of those contractors agreed to use you as the launch provider?
It’s far too early to say. I think they have done what they have to do on their side, to open competition between all contenders on an equal footing. They have also consulted the market so they will examine different launch solutions. Our responsibility is to be the most convincing offer possible, but we welcome competition whilst hoping that at the end of the day we will be the more convincing proposal.
ADM: Do you have growth plans in Australia beyond the Optus agreement and JP9102?
I think there will be other satellites coming on both the civil and the military side. We are going to introduce a more capable Vega-C launcher in July, going to 2.3 tonnes in low Earth orbit (LEO) with 50 per cent more volume under the fairing, as compared to Vega. So yes, there will be more opportunities for us.
You know we are a European company, our rockets are made in Europe, our space port is in French Guiana. We will see what we can do with Australian partners. I have in mind, for instance, Space Machine, with whom we Discuss to see if their OTV could embark on Ariane 6.
ADM: Would you look into the possibility of launching Ariane rockets from Australia?
No, I think it will not be reasonable because Ariane is a very heavy rocket. The launch pad costs hundreds of millions. The launcher is not a plug and play story and requires a very sophisticated launch pad. We also need to have some additional capabilities close to the launcher. So, to be honest, I think there is no business case. We can never say never but I will be honest and say that Ariane will be launched for a long time from French Guiana.
ADM: So your growth plans in Australia are more about collaboration on in space technologies rather than on launch. Is that right?
Yes. I think if launchers want to come to Australia they need, to start, to be smaller. At Arianespace, our mandate is to operate the launchers developed by the European Space Agency, so if you have more limited projects, maybe they can have a constructive dialogue with the players here in Australia.
Regarding Arianespace, what we could imagine is to have some partnership with emerging start-ups, especially in the room of the Orbital Transfer Vehicle, what we can call the last mile to orbit.
I shall mention as well an important contribution to Australian space ambitions : our mother company, Ariane Group, is selling nozzles to Gilmour, which has just done a successful test of its engine equipped with our nozzle. In addition, ArianeGroup and its GEOTracker optical space observation network, is continuing its investment in Australia with its 8th observation site located at the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Northern Australia
ADM: Looking back to the global company, how has Arianespace managed the growth of competition in private launch?
We have gone for new launcher systems since 2014 with Ariane 6 and Vega C, and these decisions have been very wise because when you consider the evolution of the market, what we see is that the market is still requesting heavy launchers.
Ariane 6 is 40 per cent cheaper than Ariane 5 due to many new processes. A good example is the fact that we will assemble the new rocket horizontally as opposed to vertically; another example is the fact that the campaign will be reduced by a factor of three, to a 10 day campaign as opposed to 30 days. We have already secured 29 missions to deliver with Ariane 6, and the fact that Amazon has decided to launch with Ariane 6 before the launcher has even flown shows we are well adapted to new market trends.
ADM: How do you balance, in Australia, the drive for sovereign capability in defence programs against the fact that Arianespace is a European company?
Autonomy is not linked to the nationality or setup of either the satellite manufacturer or the launch service provider. The autonomy is linked to the fact that Australia will have its capability delivered. As the NBN we have launched and which is now contributing to bridge the digital divide in Australian remote areas. These satellites will fully belong to Australia and at the end of the day Australia will decide 100 per cent how they want to use it. So this is where we can speak about autonomy.
If there is a long plan strategy to have a dynamic space port in Australia, we will see - but I do not think that, despite this legitimate Ambition highlighted by the launch of the NASA sounding rockets from ELA Spaceport planned in July, any Australian spaceport will be capable to launch the JP 9102 solution. It is a very ambitious project with very large satellites. The local rocket industry will take time to grow, perhaps beyond the timeframe of JP 9102. For me the sovereignty of Australia is linked to the fact that the Commonwealth has decided to go for a very ambitious space project.
ADM: Has the war in Ukraine impacted your operations out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome?
Yes, not only in Baikonur, to be clear, but also in Guiana. So the first thing I must remind you of is the fact that we decided to stop the use of Soyuz in 2023. This decision had been made when we made the decision to go for Ariane 6 and Vega C in 2014.
You must remember that it was in the context of the Russian annexion of Crimea and then at this period of time, in 2014, Europe considered as the highest priority not to rely anymore on Soyuz. We had a very profitable relationship with Russian industry, but it was decided, and we know that it was the right decision, not to have to rely on the use of the cosmodrome and the Soyuz rocket.
So Arianespace was supposed to stop operating Soyuz in 2023 and has now been frozen all year, since 25 February after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We had 11 rockets to lift off from there. We are now under the regime that protects us against what we call ‘an act of God’, and we are looking for the best solutions for our customers in response to the current dramatic circumstances.
ADM: In your role in Arianespace, what’s your biggest challenge? What’s keeping you awake at night?
Had you asked me this question a few months back, I would have immediately mentioned the James Webb Space Telescop (JWST) launch. This $10 Billion joint program with NASA, ESA and CSA, which will allow us to see back in time and understand our Universe, simply could not end up in a failure. Fortunately, Arianespace not only delivered, but double the life expectancy of JWST, thanks to the extreme precision and performance of the team and the Ariane launcher.
Now, obviously the main challenge is to introduce the two new rockets, Ariane-6 and Vega-C. So, fortunately enough these rockets are based on existing rockets; Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 have a lot of commonalities, Vega C also. So we have here a lot of continuity but these are new rockets and we have sold a huge number of these rockets - so I would say now the top priority is to demonstrate as quick as possible the successful maiden flight of these rockets. This is today our biggest challenge, knowing that on the commercial side we have already sold 29 Ariane 6 launches, which shows that Ariane 6 is already a success on the market but now we need to make it a success on the launch pad.
ADM: But you’re pretty confident?
I’m very confident because we have been in this business for more than 40 years and our customer trust us. Again, Ariane 6 is based on the technology of Ariane 5, so we mastered totally the technologies and the processes. In terms of timing we need to be a little bit patient, we need to make one milestone after the other and to make sure that we have done everything properly but, yes, I am very confident in the success of Ariane 6 and Vega C, I am sure it will happen and I am sure they will be very successful on the market.
I also want to say that I am impressed by the dynamism of the Australian space ecosystem. Australia, with Optus as a leading operator, are one of the most important ecosystems in the world. Now there is a push from the Australian government - Australia is part of the Artemis Project, Australia is going for JP 9102 - so what we see here is very impressive and we hope that it will trigger for Arianespace opportunities of procurement and partnership.