France in Space #237: New Business Plan for Arianespace
** 1: NEW BUSINESS PLAN FOR ARIANESPACE
Arianespace’s rescue plan involves a growing participation by EADS (European
Aeronautic Defense and Space company) that would be in charge of production.
Arianespace would deal with launches and customer relationships regarding
Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega. EADS would actually become the System Prime while
Arianespace would be the Launcher System Prime. In regards to propulsion,
there would only be two subcontractors, one for solid propulsion and the
other for liquid propulsion. The goal is to remove any useless contractor
levels such as Europropulsion, Regulus and Cryospace. Should this scenario
be confirmed, Snecma (French Propulsion Company) would become a supplier of
EADS, despites the engine manufacturer’s hopes to play at the same level as
the European industrial leader. Arianespace and stakeholders are committed
to offer a launch at a price tag of 122 million Euros (depreciation not
included). This plan should be confirmed at the European space ministers’
conference in Paris on May 27. This conference should also give its go-ahead
to the Soyuz project in Kourou to support the Ariane 5 launcher. By taking
off from Kourou, the Russian rocket will gain performance through a mere
geographical move (2.8 tons in GEO from Kourou instead of 1.8 tons from
Baïkonour). In these conditions, the European Space Agency (ESA) considers
the European space transportation system to be viable. Yannick d’Escatha,
French Space Agency’s president, has reaffirmed government aims to unload
part of the entire agency’s 32% share in launch firm Arianespace.
[Les Echos 05/01/2003 Le Monde 05/03/2003 Aviation Week & Space Technology
05/05/2003]
** 2: EUROPE EXPLORATION OF THE RED PLANET
Just before midnight on June 2nd a Soyuz rocket operated by Starsem will
lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and Mars Express will be on its way.
The spacecraft was given the green light to launch following completion of a
successful flight readiness review on May 3rd. However, just before the
spacecraft was due to leave Toulouse, France, for its trip to Baikonur in
Kazakhstan, engineers discovered a fault in one of the electronics modules.
“Of course, it was the most difficult box to remove from the spacecraft,”
says with a smile Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager. In view of the
estimated time needed to correct the fault, the launch date was initially
put back from 23 May to 6 June, still within the launch window. However,
thanks to the skill and dedication of the engineering team, the job was
completed sooner than expected and the launch date was brought forward. Mars
Express is currently being fuelled, an operation that takes about a week. It
will then be attached to Fregat, the Soyuz upper stage rocket booster, and
mated with the Soyuz rocket. The whole system will be rolled out to the pad
four days before launch. The journey to Mars will take six months and the
spacecraft should enter its Martian orbit on December 26th. [ESA Press
release 05/05/2003]
** 3: SPAIN IS STILL BLOCKING GALILEO
In Brussels, France opposed further discussions regarding the respective
investments of European Member States in the Galileo satellite navigation
project, despite pressures from Spain. Spain needs to understand that
Galileo is a strategic stake for Europe. This country takes a huge
responsibility by blocking this project, as stated Ms. Haigneré, the French
research minister. If Spain starts demanding more in this project, why not
other countries, she added. Spain still wants to increase its share in the
project from 9% now up to approximately 10%. By increasing its initial
investment, the country actually wants to maximize its industrial return,
i.e. how much its industries will be involved in the project. The project’s
four leading countries will invest 17.5% respectively in the project. [AFP
Press Release 05/05/2003]
** 4: FRENCH ASTRONOMY NEWS
French astronomers got together on March 17-20 in the South of France. The
agenda of this meeting was to assess their community’s needs over the next
five years in a context of budget restrictions. Most of the yearly budget is
used for very large programs, such as French and European space and ground
experiments (ESA, CNES), optical telescopes based in Chile (European South
Observatory) and Hawaii (CFHT – Canadian French Hawaii Telescope), as well
as the radio antennas of the Millimeter Radio-astronomy Institute (Institut
de Radioastronomie Millimétrique) in Pico Velelta (Spain) and the Bure
Plateau (France). With only 3 million Euros a year left, astronomers only
have a small margin of maneuver. If it all came down to it, French
astronomers’ priority would be to develop the second series of instruments
for Europe’s Very Large Telescope based in Chile. If a 20m-dia optical
telescope had to be designed before the 100m-dia OWL (OverWhelmingly Large)
giant telescope, this would be in association with US and Japanese partners.
[La Recherche 05/2003 Libération 05/06/2003]
** 5: IN BRIEF
The Franco-Indian Megha-Tropiques mission is not cancelled. The CNES (French
Space Agency) has only proposed to review the agreement. [CNES Press Release
04/30/2003] The BeppoSAX satellite has re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Italian space agency estimated that as much as 1,325 pounds of the 3,086
Dutch-Italian satellite survived the fiery passage through the atmosphere
and rain down on Earth. BeppoSAX’s end came nearly seven years to the day
after its April 30, 1996, launch. The Earth-orbiting, X-ray observatory is
best known for its discovery of 50 gamma-ray bursts, explosions more
powerful than anything known since the Big Bang. [Le Monde 05/03/2003
Space.com 04/30/2003] Japan plans on making a space test with France’s
support this month. This is part of the work done on a new generation of
space shuttle. This test will be carried out in Northern Sweden by the end
of May. It will involve the Japanese Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), the
Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) and the French Space Agency (CNES). The
shuttle model that will be used in the test will measure over 3.3 meters in
length and weigh 500 kg. [Reuters 05/02/2003] The French-German-British
Astrium is losing money and Rainer Hetrich, co-chief executive of EADS,
Astrium’s parent company, said the lay-offs are intended only to stop the
financial losses. To achieve a 10 percent operating profit margin would
require a merger, likely with Alcatel Space of Paris. Alcatel Chairman Serge
Tchuruk has softened his opposition when he admitted that such a merger
could lead to substantial cost savings. [Space News 05/05/2003]
[From AFP Press Release, Aviation Week & Space Technology, CNES Press
Release, Les Echos, ESA Press Release, Liberation, Le Monde, La Recherche,
Reuters Press Release, Space News, Space.com]
—-
France In Space is a weekly synthesis of French space activities based on
French press. Its content does not reflect an official position of the
French Government or CNES. It is provided by the CNES office and the Office
of Science and Technology of the French Embassy in Washington D.C
Editors: Vincent Sabathier, Thibaut Girard – Translator: World Traduction
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