Author Topic: Arianespace and ArianeGroup kick off production for the final 10 Ariane 5 launch  (Read 5270 times)

Online jacqmans

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January 9, 2018

Arianespace and ArianeGroup kick off production for the final 10 Ariane 5 launchers across Europe’s space industry in parallel to the operational debut of Ariane 6
With this latest order, there are now 23 Ariane 5 launchers in production or to be produced, from the PB+ and PC batches. With this latest “PC batch,” the industry confirms its commitment to consolidate the competitiveness of the European launch offer even before the arrival of Ariane 6.

ArianeGroup and its Arianespace subsidiary have announced an order for 10 Ariane 5 ECA launchers.
The 10 launch vehicles covered by this “PC batch” will be deployed from the Guiana Space Center beginning in 2020, coming after the launches of 18 Ariane 5s ordered in 2013 (in the “PB+ batch”).
This production order represents a total value of more than one billion euros for the European space industry, involving more than 600 companies in 12 European countries* – including 350 small and medium-sized enterprises.
The order’s size is aligned with the ramp-up for the next-generation Ariane 6, which is scheduled to make its first flight in mid-2020, reaching full capacity in 2023.
The decision announced today follows the commitment made by Arianespace in December 2016 to initiate the procurement of long lead items (LLI**). It also allows ArianeGroup, industrial prime contractor for the development and operation of the Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 launchers – as well as its European partners (over 600 companies in 13 countries*, including some 350 small and medium-size enterprises) – to start initial production activity for these additional launchers.

This new batch also guarantees the durability for launch service offerings by the European operator Arianespace for institutional and commercial clients until the end of the transition phase with Ariane 6 – with this launcher’s full operational capacity to be reached by 2023. Ariane 5, which chalked up its 82nd successful launch in a row in December 2017, has undergone continuous performance improvements since the beginning of the Ariane 5 ECA program. As a result, Ariane 5 set a new record in June 2017 by lofting 10,865 kg. into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). From this payload lift record, Ariane 5’s performance will be increased another 250 kg. by 2020 as part of an ESA-funded program – with the  PC production batch taking full advantage of the improvement.

After the announcement of the PC batch production order, Luce Fabreguettes, the Arianespace Executive Vice President – Missions, Operations and Purchasing, said: “With the production go-ahead for these 10 new launchers, Arianespace proudly leverages the exceptional performance, reliability and availability of Ariane 5 to deliver the best possible launch service for its customers, while also guaranteeing Europe’s independent access to space. Along with our partners, this new contract ensures that we will have the best conditions to succeed in the operational transition from Ariane 5 to Ariane 6 for the benefit of all our customers.”

ArianeGroup CEO Alain Charmeau, commenting on this new step, which begins the transition between Ariane 5 and Ariane 6, said: “This production kickoff of 10 new Ariane 5 ECA represents, for the European industry, a total of more than 1 billion euros. This also allows us to continue capitalizing on the exceptional levels of quality and punctuality that have made Ariane 5 so successful, while being consistent with the rapid market introduction of Ariane 6.”
Jacques :-)

Offline Rik ISS-fan

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Has anyone noticed that this is sad news, Arianespace has ordered less launches that they planed for the Ariane 5 - Ariane 6 transition period.


I just read this Arianespace article: After meeting its commitments in 2017, Arianespace prepares for an intense 2018 and looks to the future with Ariane 6 and Vega C
Apparently Arianespace is going to transition faster from Ariane 5 to Ariane 6 than initially planned. from the article:
"In this context, Arianespace and ArianeGroup have decided to engage the production of a final batch of 10 Ariane 5 launchers. This “PC lot” extends the competitiveness efforts of the entire industry applied in the previous PB+ batch. The 10 additional Ariane 5s will be launched from 2020, in parallel with Ariane 6 (14 Ariane 6 launches are planned between 2020 and 2022, followed by the full capacity as soon as 2023)."

The graphic (from Ariane 6 User's club presentation, posted online by SpaceIntelReport), shows 14 Ariane 5 PC batch launches and 11 Ariane 6 launches between 2020-2022. Now it's 10x A5 PC batch & 14x A6.
« Last Edit: 01/10/2018 10:21 am by Rik ISS-fan »

Offline AncientU

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Are the launches going to be there for that ramp-up in A-6 launches?  Looks like cut back on A-5 is because there are fewer launches available... cut-back could extend into A-6 production so that you only get the 10 A-5s and 10 or so A-6s. 

Chart shows 6 in 2019, 7 in 2020, 8 in 2021, and 9 in 2022... could be flat at 6 per year (or worse).
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Offline Chasm

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With the change of the A5 order the graphic does not fit any longer.

What about the 4 spares? Was the original order even bigger, 14+4=18 cores?
Overall not bad. A6 might be not quite cheap enough but every A5 less saves the customers money.

An interesting question might be if Ariane offered or Customers asked for the switch.

Offline russianhalo117

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With the change of the A5 order the graphic does not fit any longer.

What about the 4 spares? Was the original order even bigger, 14+4=18 cores?
Overall not bad. A6 might be not quite cheap enough but every A5 less saves the customers money.

An interesting question might be if Ariane offered or Customers asked for the switch.
The original transition phase had 33 total A5's, 11 total A6's, and 36 total Soyuz-ST/2.1's (all batch orders combined) and that does not to my undrstanding on A6 include commercial contracts.
« Last Edit: 01/10/2018 11:08 pm by russianhalo117 »

Offline AncientU

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With the change of the A5 order the graphic does not fit any longer.

What about the 4 spares? Was the original order even bigger, 14+4=18 cores?
Overall not bad. A6 might be not quite cheap enough but every A5 less saves the customers money.

An interesting question might be if Ariane offered or Customers asked for the switch.
The original transition phase had 33 total A5's, 11 total A6's, and 36 total Soyuz-ST/2.1's (all batch orders combined) and that does not to my undrstanding on A6 include commercial contracts.

The interview with Stephane Isreal only quoted 58 manifested flights... 29 Soyuz, 20 Ariane, 9 Vega.  That's quite a shortfall on Ariane vehicles (45% of the transition projection on manifest).  Does Ariane need to double their sales to make this work?
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Offline Rik ISS-fan

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AFAIK Arianespace backlog until 2020 is filled. If they reach the same amount of orders the next couple of years their backlog is filled until 2022. Let's try to do the numbers.

Supply; Arianespace has:
23x Ariane 5 on order; 1xES (gallileo), 12x A5-ECA PB+Batch and 10x A5-ECA PC-batch.
0x Ariane 6 (not available jet)
Soyuz supply ??, most likely ordered on demand.
11x Vega (5x batch1 [2013] & 6x batch2 [2017] & 4x Vega C [2017]

Demand; Arianespace has a backlog of:
18x A5: 15x Ariane 5 ECA dual GTO launch, 2x Ariane 5 ECA escape launch (BepiColombo & JWST) and 1x A5ES Gallileo.
2x Ariane 6 Gallileo (+ 3x Ariane 6: Ariane 62 FM1, FM3 & A64 FM4)
29x Soyuz; (21x Oneweb, 2xO3B, 3xEUMETSAT, CSG1+CHEOPS, 2x??)
6x VEGA (ADM-Aeolus, Prisma, SEOSAT, ?MN35-B, ? 2x Falxon Eye (FETHR), L3/SSMS
3x VEGA-C (CSG2 & 2x VHR-2020 [Airbus EO])
(1x EURockot, Sentinal 3B)

So Arianespace has left to sell: for the 2020-2022 period
5x Ariane 5ECA
?x Ariane 6
5x Vega
1x Vega-C

Institutional, non military, expected orders:
Sentinel: 2C; 2D; 3C, ?3D (800km SSO <1200kg)
EUMETSAT: 2x MTG (I1 & S1/Sentinel 4) [I2 in 2023] (all GTO)
ESA Earth Explorers: 6) EarthCARE, 7) BioMass, 8 ) FLEX (all SSO)
ESA Cosmic Vision: M2 EUCLID, L1 JUICE
ARTES Comsats: Eurostar NEO, Spacebus NEO, Electra (all GTO) & EDRS-D
SpaceRider ?x (Vega-C, LEO)
Proba 3, CERES 1-3, Taranis, MicroCarb, Merlin, M-AGRO, ?ESEO (<500kg SSO/LEO)

I'm convinced Arianespace will be able to fill their order book, to match launcher supply. Most likely more Vega or soyuz launches are required.

Edit to add:
With now a total of 96 Ariane 5 launches, and a streek of 82 consecutive successes. And still 23 Ariane 5 launches left to go; Ariane 5 could reach a total of 119 launches and 105 consecutive successes.
« Last Edit: 01/14/2018 05:40 pm by Rik ISS-fan »

Offline russianhalo117

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AFAIK Arianespace backlog until 2020 is filled. If they reach the same amount of orders the next couple of years their backlog is filled until 2022. Let's try to do the numbers.

Supply; Arianespace has:
23x Ariane 5 on order; 1xES (gallileo), 12x A5-ECA PB+Batch and 10x A5-ECA PC-batch.
0x Ariane 6 (not available jet)
Soyuz supply ??, most likely ordered on demand.
11x Vega (5x batch1 [2013] & 6x batch2 [2017] & 4x Vega C [2017]

Demand; Arianespace has a backlog of:
18x A5: 15x Ariane 5 ECA dual GTO launch, 2x Ariane 5 ECA escape launch (BepiColombo & JWST) and 1x A5ES Gallileo.
2x Ariane 6 Gallileo (+ 3x Ariane 6: Ariane 62 FM1, FM3 & A64 FM4)
29x Soyuz; (21x Oneweb, 2xO3B, 3xEUMETSAT, CSG1+CHEOPS, 2x??)
6x VEGA (ADM-Aeolus, Prisma, SEOSAT, ?MN35-B, ? 2x Falxon Eye (FETHR), L3/SSMS
3x VEGA-C (CSG2 & 2x VHR-2020 [Airbus EO])
(1x EURockot, Sentinal 3B)

So Arianespace has left to sell: for the 2020-2022 period
5x Ariane 5ECA
?x Ariane 6
5x Vega
1x Vega-C

Institutional, non military, expected orders:
Sentinel: 2C; 2D; 3C, ?3D (800km SSO <1200kg)
EUMETSAT: 2x MTG (I1 & S1/Sentinel 4) [I2 in 2023] (all GTO)
ESA Earth Explorers: 6) EarthCARE, 7) BioMass, 8 ) FLEX (all SSO)
ESA Cosmic Vision: M2 EUCLID, L1 JUICE
ARTES Comsats: Eurostar NEO, Spacebus NEO, Electra (all GTO) & EDRS-D
SpaceRider ?x (Vega-C, LEO)
Proba 3, CERES 1-3, Taranis, MicroCarb, Merlin, M-AGRO, ?ESEO (<500kg SSO/LEO)

I'm convinced Arianespace will be able to fill their order book, to match launcher supply. Most likely more Vega or soyuz launches are required.

Edit to add:
With now a total of 96 Ariane 5 launches, and a streek of 82 consecutive successes. And still 23 Ariane 5 launches left to go; Ariane 5 could reach a total of 119 launches and 105 consecutive successes.

Soyuz is done in batches called factory serial number (machine series)
See https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=17286.msg1746026#msg1746026

Offline Rik ISS-fan

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... Edit to add:
With now a total of 96 Ariane 5 launches, and a streek of 82 consecutive successes. And still 23 Ariane 5 launches left to go; Ariane 5 could reach a total of 119 launches and 105 consecutive successes.

VA240 was flight 96 of Ariane 5, launch took place on December 12, 2017.
On January 9, 2018 the final batch (PC) of Ariane 5 was announced.
Batch size 10, total Ariane 5 launches remaining 23.
On January 25, 2018 Ariane 5 VA-241, launch 97 took of. And that was a partial failure.

Now we know that the final Ariane 5 will be Launch 117, VA261. (117 - 96 = 21)
Why are there two launchers less than planned in early Januari 2018?
« Last Edit: 05/14/2023 09:20 am by Rik ISS-fan »

Offline GWR64

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...

Now we know that the final Ariane 5 will be Launch 117, VA261. (117 - 96 = 21)
Why are there two launchers less than planned in early Januari 2018?

The last two batch PC Ariane 5 have been canceled. I don't know when.
At some point I read at Avio, that the Vulcain-2 LOX turbopumps #9 and #10 were produced
and are to be used for Ariane 6.

Edit: Here's a little something. Avio annual report 2019. maybe there is more somewhere.
Quote
Main agreements and contractual events in 2019
With regards to Ariane 5 production:
• negotiations for the new variant of the Batch PC related to the PB production contract for
the supply of the Ariane 5 solid boosters is still ongoing with the ESA, in particular for the
compensation for the Ramp down of the programme. Compensation for procurement (which
has been completed) has concluded and will translate into a new contract over the coming
months;
• the PC contract related to the production of the Vulcain 2 oxygen turbopumps remains
unchanged. The final two units shall in fact be reutilised for the Ariane 6, maintaining the
continuity of current Ariane 5 production and compliance with the schedule for the initial
Ariane 6 deliveries;

• new tranche of the MCO contract signed, which will cover the maintenance needs of the
Ariane 5 manufacturing equipment until its completion, both for the Collefero site and for
the Regulus facility in Guyana;
• initial tranche of the LEAP contract signed for the earthquake protection update to the ESA’s
buildings, dedicated to Ariane manufacturing;
• the variant to the PC contract for the price review for the metal parts of the nozzle of the
Ariane 5 booster signed.

https://avio-data.teleborsa.it/2020%2fAvio-Bilancio-definitvo_2019_Eng_20200331_124547.pdf

and Avio annual report 2020:
Quote
Main agreements and contractual events of 2020
Regarding Ariane 5 and P120 production activities:
• A new MCO contract tranche was signed to cover the maintenance needs of Ariane 5
manufacturing equipment until the end of the programme at both Colleferro plant and the
Regulus plant in Guyana;
• Reduction of the final Ariane 5 production batch to 8 launchers (PC8) was formalized, with
the signing of the modified contract for Ariane 5 MPS;

• The Authorization To Proceed (ATP) extension was signed for the P120C production contract,
pending finalization and postponed due to delays in the Ariane 6 development programme;
• The Authorization To Proceed (ATP) extension was signed for the V2 and Vinci turbo-pumps
production contract, pending finalization and postponed due to delays in the Ariane 6
development programme.

https://avio-data.teleborsa.it/2021%2fv3-Avio-Group-Annual-Financial-Report-2020_vDEF_20210331_112752.pdf
« Last Edit: 05/14/2023 10:31 am by GWR64 »

Offline Galactic Penguin SST

... Edit to add:
With now a total of 96 Ariane 5 launches, and a streek of 82 consecutive successes. And still 23 Ariane 5 launches left to go; Ariane 5 could reach a total of 119 launches and 105 consecutive successes.

VA240 was flight 96 of Ariane 5, launch took place on December 12, 2017.
On January 9, 2018 the final batch (PC) of Ariane 5 was announced.
Batch size 10, total Ariane 5 launches remaining 23.
On January 25, 2018 Ariane 5 VA-241, launch 97 took of. And that was a partial failure.

Now we know that the final Ariane 5 will be Launch 117, VA261. (117 - 96 = 21)
Why are there two launchers less than planned in early Januari 2018?

What is strange is that the ultimate total number was exactly the same as in the graph shown in your reply #1 in Jan. 2018 (20 launches in 2019 and beyond), except that 1 launch planned in 2018 was delayed (so actual no. is 6 in 2018 and 21 launches 2019-23).
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Offline TheKutKu

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... Edit to add:
With now a total of 96 Ariane 5 launches, and a streek of 82 consecutive successes. And still 23 Ariane 5 launches left to go; Ariane 5 could reach a total of 119 launches and 105 consecutive successes.

VA240 was flight 96 of Ariane 5, launch took place on December 12, 2017.
On January 9, 2018 the final batch (PC) of Ariane 5 was announced.
Batch size 10, total Ariane 5 launches remaining 23.
On January 25, 2018 Ariane 5 VA-241, launch 97 took of. And that was a partial failure.

Now we know that the final Ariane 5 will be Launch 117, VA261. (117 - 96 = 21)
Why are there two launchers less than planned in early Januari 2018?

Yes, The PC batch size got quietly reduced to 8 around late 2018/early 2019, I’m not sure when exactly but There were rumours about it already in mid-2018.
There were talks in 2019 to bring it back to 10 Ariane 5 but obviously that didn’t result in anything.

Reasons are definitely nebulous, only things I’ve heard were to shut down/switch m the production lines quicker and to transfer payloads to Ariane 6 (to flesh out the manifest?).

2 more launches wouldn’t have changed anything to the broader launcher strategy but it could have had quite a significant psychological difference, if only because the last A5 would launch while actual A6 flight hardware would be in Kourou
« Last Edit: 05/14/2023 10:18 am by TheKutKu »

Offline Rik ISS-fan

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The initial (~2017) plan was to have 14 Ariane 5 in the PC batch (plus 4 to mitigate risk, as stated in the graphic).
By Januari 2018 this was reduced to 10 and by 2019 it had quietly been reduced to 8. Most probably because of the VA241 mishap and market conditions. And underestimated Ariane 6 development.
So the PC batch of Ariane 5 has been reduced from 18 by ~2016/'17 to 8 by 2020.

In the graphic there are 6 or 7 more Ariane 5 launches than what actually took place.
Year  | Plan | Occurred
2017 |  6   | 6
2018 |  7   | 6
2019 | 5-6 | 4 
2020 |  6   | 3
2021 |  4   | 3
2022 |  3   | 3
2023 |  2   | 2 (likely)

So from 2005 -2018 Ariane 5 launched 5-7x annually, and in the period 2019 - 2023 on average 3x annually.
I think European launch industry saw this coming in 2018 or 2019 and decided to reduce the amount of Ariane 5 launches.
Also because they assumed introduction of Ariane 6 with.
2020 [1x], 2021 [4x], 2022 [6x] =15 launches Ariane 5 to Ariane 6 transition batch.

The initial plan had 10 to 15 Ariane 5 launches after the maiden launch of Ariane 6. By 2020 this had been reduced to less than 5. Now Europe is looking at a launch capability gap of at least half a year.
But there is a backlog of over 5 launches that have a delayed launch because of no launcher availability.
« Last Edit: 05/14/2023 03:31 pm by Rik ISS-fan »

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