Amazon retained the future European Ariane-6 rocket, for eighteen launches, in order to put in orbit some of the satellites of its Kuiper constellation, whose objective is to broadcast the broadband Internet on all the Planet, by 2030.
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“We have just signed and announce the most important contract in all the history of Ariane.” Tuesday, April 5, at Space Symposium, the Growth of the World Space Community in Colorado Springs (Colorado), The executive president of Arianespace, Stéphane Israel, had his satisfaction. After two and a half years of negotiation, Amazon retained the European rocket to put in orbit some of the 3,236 satellites constituting its future Kuiper constellation, whose objective is to broadcast the broadband internet on the whole planet, of the world. Here at 2030. It is part of the four launchers selected by the e-commerce champion for its 83 launches, which, in addition to its future New Glenn rocket, developed by Blue Origin, the Space Society of Jeff Bezos, will use atlas and vulcan Centaur of the American United Launch Alliance (ULA).
Eighteen Ariane-6 launches are planned for three years, each launcher carriers at least thirty satellites. Never seen. “Usually, customers only need half of a rocket capacity for their satellites, there is the entire launcher that’s reserved, it’s like we’ve signed thirty -SIX contracts at once, “explains Mr. Israel. The pace of missions has not been specified, no more than the amount of this contract, which would rise to several billion euros.
The priority is now to succeed as soon as possible the commissioning of this new rocket, called to succeed in Ariane-5, in operation since 1996, and whose first flight is scheduled for December.
Two years late
“The Amazon contract gives scope to the Ariane-6 program, credibilates its market outlook and, above all, it consolidates the image of this future launcher, underlines the boss of Arianespace. Designed at a time where the market was dominated by the launch of the big satellites towards the geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometers from the Earth, it demonstrates its adaptability to this new expanding market that the constellations of small satellites in low orbit, evolving between 500 and 1,200 kilometers. “
This new market was almost non-existent in 2014, when the Europeans decided to have a new rocket. They do it then in response to the offensive of the founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, who, arriving in the space field, with Spacex and his Falcon-9 rockets, breaks prices, weakened and even eclipses traditional actors.
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