The Hindu Business Line : Arianespace bullish on Asia

Mr Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, addressing a press conference at the International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Sept. 26 Arianespace, the €1-billion turnover space launch services and solutions company has an order book of placing at least 50 large satellites, a significant number from Asia, in the next three years.

The European company is also eyeing a bigger pie in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite space, in which it is confident of leveraging India’s strengths.

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Arianespace, Mr Jean-Yves Le Gall, said India’s PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), is now certified and reliable to place commercial, small satellite into near orbit.

“We will bid for contracts jointly with ISRO as well as divert some business in this segment, so that PSLV can launch these small satellites from India’s launch pad in Sriharikota,” Mr Le Gall told newspersons at the ongoing 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), here today.

Arianespace’s own launch vehicle — Vega for LEO satellites would be flight tested in 2009 and will take a couple of years to be fully qualified for commercial launches, hence the agreement with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), is not conflict of business interest, he clarified to questions.

Asked about lowering costs to beat emerging competition in the satellite launch business, Mr Le Gall said: “Arianespace believes that quality, reliability and schedule commitment were paramount to customers. The last 19 flights of Ariane-5, which put 38 satellites into orbit in the last 5 years, were successful.”

If you decrease the cost you also tend to lower the quality. The many failures of low cost launchers, especially from new entrants in the market, does not augur well. Satellite launch business is both expensive and risky, he said.

On possibilities of Arianespace participating in interplanetary launches, Mr Le Gall said here the challenge was to bring down costs and maximise benefits. The company’s Ariane-5 vehicle has already sent a spacecraft — Smart 1 to the Moon in 2003 and another to a comet.

On space tourism, the CEO of the biggest launch vehicle company said: “It is a long way off. We are very pragmatic in this business.”

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