Ariane-5ME (Mid Life Evolution)

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120410-astrium-contract-ariane5.html

Tue, 10 April, 2012
Astrium Awarded Contract for Continued Ariane 5 ME Development
By Peter B. de Selding

PARIS — Astrium Space Transportation will pursue development of an upgraded Ariane 5 launch vehicle under a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) valued at 112 million euros ($150 million), Astrium announced April 10.

The contract covers work on the Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution, or Ariane 5 ME, program that ESA governments partially approved in late 2008. Ariane 5 ME would increase the vehicle's payload-carrying power to geostationary transfer orbit, the destination of most telecommunications satellites, by 20 percent, to 12,000 kilograms, for no increase in production cost when compared to today's Ariane 5.

The 19-nation ESA will take a second look at Ariane 5 ME in November during a meeting of its governments' space ministers. The agency is expected to decide then whether to pursue Ariane 5 ME to completion — essentially developing a new, restartable upper stage and testing it atop the current Ariane 5 — or take the relevant Ariane 5 ME work and use it to pursue an entirely new rocket to be in service around 2025.

ESA governments in 2008 agreed to spend 357 million euros on Ariane 5 ME, including the Vinci restartable engine under development by the Snecma division of Safran. Astrium and ESA signed an initial contract for Ariane 5 ME development in late 2009 valued at 150 million euros for what was intended to be two years of work. The assumption was that the ESA ministerial conference would occur in late 2011.

The conference has been postponed by a year and is now scheduled to occur in late November in Italy. The year-long delay has given proponents of a next-generation rocket time to make their case.

The current debate centers on whether ESA governments, many of them struggling with high debt levels, should spend 1 billion euros or more to complete Ariane 5 ME work, or invest in a new-generation rocket that would be less expensive to operate and less reliant on the commercial telecommunications market to maintain financial viability.

The French and German ministries responsible for space have created a joint working group to debate the issue and return a judgment by June 30. A firm consensus reached by ESA's two largest contributors on the way forward with Europe's showcase launcher program likely would be accepted by the other ESA delegations.

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"Процесс пошел" (С) - ИМХО теперь надо ждать сообшение Роскосмоса о создании геостационароного носителя
с грузоподьэмностью 12 тонн на ГСО. Как обычно, "догоним и перегоним".

[Salo]

Там 12 тонн на ГПО. :wink:

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По моему они еще не решили что им делать - улучшать Ариан-5 или делать новую модульную РН.

[Salo]

AW&ST: ESA Mulls Ariane 5 Upgrade, Replacements

Apr 17, 2012

By Amy Svitak
Paris and Kourou, French Guiana

The future of Europe's launcher sector—and by implication the global commercial launch market—will be decided this year when European Space Agency (ESA) governments opt to either add more muscle to the current Ariane 5 rocket or supplant it with a completely new launcher designed to rely less on commercial business.

Even now, ESA's two largest financial contributors, France and Germany, are haggling over the merits of an upgrade to the Ariane 5—known as the midlife evolution or Ariane 5 ME—or getting started right away on a successor, next-generation launcher that many in France have dubbed Ariane 6.

The two sides are expected to hash out a common vision by June 30, ahead of a November summit at which ESA's ministerial council will set the agency's next multiyear spending plan.

During ESA's last round of budget negotiations in 2008, an initial tranche of €355 million ($464 million) was approved to begin work on the Ariane 5 ME, a development approved with Franco-German support. Another €1.5 billion would be needed starting next year to complete work on the upgrade, which would equip the Ariane 5 with the Vinci restartable cryogenic upper-stage engine and keep prime contractor EADS-Astrium's German engineering teams busy until Europe decides on a successor rocket.

"Ariane 5 ME will be a very competitive product to be put on the market in 2016 or 2017," Astrium Space Transportation CEO Alain Charmeau says, adding that the upgrade would equate to a 20% performance boost for the same price of an Ariane 5 launch today.

France, on the other hand, now appears ready to scrap the ME and start work on Ariane 6, a next-generation rocket that would feature a modular design less reliant on commercial launches than Ariane 5.

Designed to appeal to the global commercial market, Ariane launch vehicles have been the "go-to" rockets for satellite fleet operators worldwide for the past 20 years. With the March 23 liftoff of ESA's third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3), Europe's commercial launch consortium, Arianespace, boasts 47 consecutive Ariane 5 missions without a failure while comprising almost half of the global commercial market.

Despite this track record of reliability, the likelihood of the U.S. dollar remaining sharply lower than the euro in the coming years, coupled with emerging competition from the U.S. Falcon 9, Chinese Long March and new Indian rockets has led French government officials and some outside analysts to conclude that the relatively high cost of Ariane 5 launches can no longer be sustained.

Arianespace is already lowering operating costs by 15-20% through an uptick in launch tempo with the addition of new capabilities, including a European variant of the medium-lift Russian Soyuz rocket and a brand-new Italian-built light-launcher dubbed Vega. Ariane 5 ME could further lower costs, EADS-Astrium argues, by boosting performance with co-manifested launches weighing a combined 12,000 kg (26,455 lb.) to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for the same price as an Ariane 5 launch today.

The argument for Ariane 5 ME assumes the commercial market is trending toward larger, heavier satellites that can be launched two at a time. But, as Arianespace has learned, orchestrating such dual launches of commercial and sometimes government payloads is tricky, and achieving optimum payload capacity is not always possible.

Unlike the Ariane 5, which has required Arianespace to capture up to 50% of the commercial market just to break even, the Ariane 6 could get by solely on anticipated European government demand—roughly two or three launches annually—making the next-generation launcher less reliant on the commercial market than Ariane 5 or its planned upgrade. While the Ariane 6 would maintain the same launch rhythm—between five and seven annually—as its predecessor, it would do so at a much lower cost. And while Arianespace currently struggles to fill the Ariane 5's massive dual-payload capacity—currently more than 9,000 kg and up to 12,000 kg with the new upper stage—the modular Ariane 6 could accommodate launches of single spacecraft weighing 3,000-8,000 kg at a price tailored to fit customer needs. In contrast to the situation today, Arianespace would never have to worry about losing money on a launch for which it is unable to fill the rocket to capacity..

Such a business model, France argues, would mean Arianespace would no longer have to slug it out in the commercial market in order to survive. The consortium could be viable with only two or three European military or civil launches per year, with a few commercial missions to fill out the 5-7 needed to sustain the Ariane 5. Ariane 6's net effect on commercial launch prices would depend on how much of a splash new entrants to the market ultimately make. Although a less commercially reliant Ariane 6 could put upward pressure on prices, the emergence of new launchers in the U.S., China, India and Brazil would tend to drive prices down.

Over the past several months ESA has queried its largest European customers—SES, Eutelsat, Hispasat and European militaries—as to their requirements for a future launcher. SES President Romain Bausch says his company—the world's second-largest commercial satellite operator in terms of revenue—favors Ariane 6 over Ariane 5 ME.

"We see the market splitting into two groups of satellites, one 3 to 3.5 tonnes, the other 6 to 6.5 tonnes." Bausch said on the sidelines of the Satellite 2012 conference in Washington March 12. "ESA has asked us our thoughts about the market and we have told them what we thought. It is certainly along the lines of what has been called Ariane 6, a modular vehicle capable of launching one satellite at a time, covering the two weight classes into GTO."

ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain is expected to seek design proposals from industry this month for building a next-generation launcher under a procurement strategy that would alter the 19-nation agency's acquisition approach to facilitate more competition among companies in an effort to lower development costs.

Traditionally, ESA has relied on member states to ante up funding every three years for specific development programs, leaving the agency to build the project while adhering to a geographic return policy, guaranteeing a 90% return on investment for participating countries in the form of industrial work shares.

Last year, an outside audit of Ariane 5 manufacturers found that unless European governments agreed to bend ESA's geographic return policy, the agency would be hard-pressed to find savings in the Ariane 5 program, including Ariane 5 ME.

Dordain, who hopes to have the industry proposals in hand by the November ministerial, believes the shift in acquisition approach would indeed lower the cost to develop a new launcher, a figure that France and Germany say is expected to be €3-5 billion. At a minimum, he expects ESA ministers to make a decision on the first phase of a next-generation launcher at the November meeting.

"I wish to know by at least the end of the year the architecture of the next-generation launch vehicle and the industrial team," he says.

But while Dordain's cost-saving approach is sure to put pressure on existing suppliers to lower prices, tampering with ESA's current industrial return rules could alienate some of its key financial backers.

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Next-generation Ariane Tops Agenda for ESA Ministerial

BORDEAUX, FRANCE — It has been 25 years since European governments last made a major decision on the direction of the Ariane rocket system. This fall they may take the next step.

Ministers from the 19-nation European Space Agency (ESA) are scheduled to meet in late November in Caserta, Italy, to set their budget and program priorities for the coming years.

Every aspect of ESA's work — including telecommunications, Earth observation, exploration and manned flight, navigation and meteorology — will be tackled, but how to proceed with Ariane may have the most long-term impact.

Battling for support from the ministers are two ideas. Both have their defenders and detractors among industrial rocket-component builders, government agencies and government satellite system designers.

ESA and European government officials say that whichever idea is selected, it must lead to a rocket that does not need government financial support for its operations once its development is completed.

Ariane 5 has been operated without a failure since late 2002 and has logged 48 consecutive successes. It has maintained a 40-50 percent share of the commercial satellite launch market during this period.

But the vehicle still requires some 100 million euros ($130 million) per year in government cash contributions to permit the Arianespace launch consortium to reach the financial break-even point.

"We cannot provide support for exploitation costs indefinitely," ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said here May 7 at the Space Propulsion 2012 conference, organized by the French 3AF association. "This is key. The question is, how can we reach that objective?"

The first development option, which ESA governments began funding at their last ministerial conference in 2008, is called Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution, or Ariane 5 ME.

Ariane 5 ME features the new Vinci restartable upper-stage engine, next-generation avionics, a 20-meter-long rocket fairing and an upgraded vehicle equipment bay. Its goal: to increase the payload-carrying power of the current Ariane 5 heavy-lift vehicle by about 20 percent, enabling it to carry two satellites weighing a combined 11,000 kilograms into the geostationary transfer orbit that is the destination of most telecommunications satellites.

Ariane 5 ME backers have pledged that the upgraded vehicle would cost no more to build than the current Ariane 5 ECA, and that it would be ready for flight starting in 2017.

The competing idea that ESA ministers will review is a next-generation vehicle, sometimes called Ariane 6. Its focus is keeping operating costs down with a modular vehicle tailored to adapt to different market conditions.

Cryogenic- and solid-propellant combinations for Ariane 6 — all using existing facilities and based on existing technologies — are being considered.

The design requirements are that the rocket be capable of launching, one at a time, satellites weighing between 2,000 and 6,500 kilograms into geostationary transfer orbit, with an expansion capability to 8,000 kilograms.

Michel Eymard, director of launchers at the French space agency, CNES, said Ariane 6 also must be able to reach financial break-even with as few as six launches in a given year.

Addressing the conference May 7, Eymard said CNES's current thinking is that Ariane 6 would launch between six and 14 times per year, with an average year featuring nine liftoffs — or the equivalent of 4.5 Ariane 5 launch campaigns. Ariane 5 typically has been launching five or six times a year; this year the schedule calls for seven launches.

Ariane 6 is designed to cost 30-40 percent less to build and launch than Ariane 5. It would require no government financial support for operations once development is completed. The new vehicle would be operational in 2020.

CNES is a principal shareholder in Arianespace and has been the source of at least half the money ESA has spent on the successive Ariane variants for more than 30 years. The French government has allocated about 200 million euros in public bond monies to study Ariane 6 technologies.

Where CNES and the French government stand on the issue of Ariane 5 ME or Ariane 6 is not clear. Eymard said the decision is being made based on three criteria. Rocket economics is 43 percent of the total, he said. The vehicle's technical performance is weighted at 30 percent, and industrial concerns — who could build what pieces to win ESA support — accounts for the remaining 27 percent of the decision.

The most vocal detractors of Ariane 6 have been officials from Astrium Space Transportation, the Ariane 5 prime contractor; and the German government, whose industry is presumed to have more to gain from Ariane 5 ME than from Ariane 6.

Astrium Space Transportation officials say Ariane 6's design and industry work-share distribution are insufficiently known to permit a go-ahead decision in November.

To sweeten the Ariane 5 ME proposal, Astrium Space Transportation officials have said Arianespace would no longer need annual ESA support payments for operating costs once the ME vehicle is operational. Whether the company and its contractors will be willing to commit, in writing, to this is unclear.

One Astrium Space Transportation official said further that a decision to go directly to Ariane 6 this year would require investments from European governments starting in 2013 that these governments may not be able to provide given Europe's public-debt crisis.

Stefan Schlechtriem, director of the Institute of Space Propulsion at the German Aerospace Center, DLR, told the conference that most German officials are in favor of Ariane 5 ME. Schlechtriem oversees Germany's Lampoldshausen rocket engine test facility, which may see more business with Ariane 5 ME than with Ariane 6.

Germany and France have created a bilateral working group in an attempt to forge a consensus on the Ariane 5 ME/Ariane 6 debate. This group is scheduled to deliver its conclusions by June 30.

Working on a parallel track, Dordain has asked European industry to come up with its own Ariane 6 proposals. ESA has sent out an invitation to tender and expects to contract with two competing consortia by June.

Dordain said the two consortia will be given one-year contracts but that he wants initial conclusions by September — in time to integrate them into ESA's formal proposals for the November ministerial conference.

That is not much time, he admitted. "The calendar is tight but in my view we have no choice," Dordain said. "If there is a chance to find a model where support for [operating costs] comes to an end, then I have to tell the member states."

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120525-next-gen-ariane-tops-agenda.html

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Похоже модульная Ариан-6 в пролете.

DLR Chief Says French-German Study Favors Ariane 5 Upgrade over Ariane 6

PARIS — A six-month joint French-German government study of future launch vehicle and space station investment options has reinforced the German space agency's preference for an upgraded Ariane 5 rocket instead of a new-generation Ariane 6, and cooperation with the United States on a U.S.-led crew vehicle instead of a European-led alternative, the agency's chief said Aug. 21.

Johann-Dietrich Woerner, chairman of the German Aerospace Center, DLR, insisted in an interview that he was speaking only for himself, and not for the German government.

The government's formal position on both subjects will be crafted in the coming weeks as Germany and the 18 other members of the European Space Agency (ESA) prepare for a late-November conference to set Europe's space policy and budget priorities.

As a prelude to this conference, Woerner said, the French and German ministers responsible for space policy will meet Sept. 22 in Zurich along with their counterparts from Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The goal of this meeting is to iron out remaining differences, particularly between France and Germany — which together account for about 50 percent of ESA's annual member-state contributions — in advance of the November meeting in Caserta, Italy.

In an attempt to head off a confrontation at the conference between Europe's two biggest space powers, the French and German governments in February appointed a committee to investigate the two most controversial items likely to be raised at the meeting.

The French-German committee, including representatives from DLR and the French space agency, CNES, submitted its report to the two government ministries in late July. The report has not been made public.

The first of the two contentious issues assessed in the report is whether to complete development of the Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution (ME) rocket, giving the vehicle a 20 percent boost in payload-carrying power and a reignitable upper stage.

Opposing that idea was a French view that Europe should bypass Ariane 5 ME and begin immediate investment in a next-generation rocket with a modular design. Unlike its more powerful predecessor, built to carry two satellites at a time to geostationary transfer orbit, the new vehicle would be designed to profitably carry single satellites weighing 2,500 to 6,500 kilograms, with a possible increase to 8,000 kilograms.

Backers of the new rocket, tentatively called Ariane 6, say the commercial market is developing in such a way as to make the current Ariane 5 too costly to remain competitive in the coming years. Without a dominant share of the commercial market, these officials say, Europe's Arianespace consortium cannot make ends meet and will be even more dependent than it is today on annual government support payments.

Evry, France-based Arianespace, which operates the Ariane 5, needs about 120 million euros ($150 million) in annual government payments to break even, despite the fact that the rocket has captured about 50 percent of the competitive global market and has posted 50 consecutive launch successes.

Ariane 5 ME backers say debt-laden ESA governments cannot afford to begin full-scale development of the Ariane 6 now, and should finish the work on Ariane 5 ME that started in 2008, when ESA members agreed to spend 357 million euros on the effort, mainly on the Vinci restartable engine.

ESA now assumes it will cost about 1.4 billion euros to complete Ariane 5 ME, including an inaugural flight by 2018.

To sweeten the appeal of Ariane 5 ME, Ariane 5 contractor Astrium Space Transportation in early August wrote ESA to guarantee that, under certain conditions, the upgraded rocket will enable Arianespace to operate with no annual support payments once it is operational in 2018.

The conditions, according to Woerner, include industrial work-share concessions that will give Astrium Space Transportation a de facto monopoly, a scenario he said may be acceptable after further discussion.

"If we are going to accept these conditions, we have to be sure that the guarantee is very, very clear," Woerner said.

Woerner said that while different cost estimates have been assigned to the Ariane 6 option, the price tag is likely to be around 4.5 billion euros over 10 years. During that time, he said, the current version of Ariane 5 will require 120 million euros per year in support payments, which brings the total cost to ESA governments to 5.7 billion euros over 10 years.

Woerner said pursuing Ariane 5 ME and Ariane 6 development simultaneously might be no more expensive than proceeding directly to Ariane 6 because of synergies in the two vehicles' designs that would shave total costs by 15-20 percent or so.

But the Ariane 5 ME option is still the most cost-effective alternative now and leaves ESA governments with sufficient additional financing to back other ESA programs in Earth observation and relating to the space station.

The French-German study also examined whether Europe should join the United States in developing the Orion deep-space crew transport vehicle by investing the 450 million euros Europe owes NASA for space station charges to 2020.

A French alternative, which had found support in Italy, proposed a Europe-led vehicle that would operate in low Earth orbit and perform a variety of missions, including possible removal of orbital debris.

Woerner said the alternative vehicle would cost far more than the 450 million euros ESA has to spend to repay NASA for station use, and that Europe's current financial condition will render that option unfeasible for now.

Whether France will be willing to invest in the Orion vehicle remains unclear. A CNES official said Aug. 22 that the agency will reserve comment about the report until the French government has reviewed it.

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120821-study-backs-ariane5-upgrade.html

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ЕКА решило не отказываться от модернизации ракеты Ariane 5

НЕАПОЛЬ (Италия), 21 ноя — РИА Новости. Совет министров стран-участниц Европейского космического агентства (ЕКА) договорился продолжить разработку модернизированной версии ракеты-носителя Ariane 5 ME, первый полет которой запланирован на 2017-2018 годы, сообщил журналистам председатель исполнительного совета германского аэрокосмического агентства DLR Йоханн-Дитрих Ворнер.
Проблема модернизации тяжелой ракеты-носителя взамен Ariane 5, рискующей потерять конкурентоспособность, считалась одним из центральных вопросов, вынесенных на встречу министров стран-участниц ЕКА в Неаполе.
Франция настаивала на необходимости немедленного начала финансирования разработки новой Ariane 6, первый запуск которой планировалось провести в 2021 году при общем объеме инвестиций порядка 4 миллиардов евро. Германия поддерживала проект частичной модернизации ракеты до новой версии Ariane 5 ME, которая обошлась бы ЕКА в 2 миллиарда евро и была бы готова к 2017 году.
"Мы решили продолжать работу над ракетой Ariane 5 ME, которую начали в 2008 году. Предполагается, что ее первый полет состоится в 2017-2018 годах", — сказал Ворнер в кулуарах встречи.
Он пояснил, что окончательная дата запуска зависит от хода работы над верхней ступенью ракеты, которую хотят сделать совместимой с будущей ракетой Ariane 6.
"Мы решили до следующей встречи министров провести дополнительную работу, чтобы понять, каким будет следующий европейский носитель", — сказал Ворнер.
Глава компании SpaceX Элон Маск в преддверии встречи министров заявлял, что Ariane 5 даже после модернизации "не сможет конкурировать с Falcon 9 и Falcon Heavy" и рекомендовал ЕКА сосредоточиться на разработке нового поколения ракеты.

http://ria.ru/science/20121121/911643543.html

[Salo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20464639

23 November 2012 Last updated at 12:59 GMT
Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent

Ariane rocket ready to do battle


Ariane 5ME and 6 Ministers approved a dual track that encompasses Ariane 5ME (left) and Ariane 6 (right)

Europe's Ariane 5 rocket has established itself as the dominant force in the satellite launch market.

The big European vehicle throws up everything fr om three-tonne TV satellites to the 20-tonne ATV space truck used to resupply astronauts on the ISS.

Half of the major telecommunications platforms lofted every year ride the European battlehorse.

But as good as it is, Ariane is under pressure. Competitors are circling and changes are needed if the vehicle is to retain its benchmark status.

We got a glimpse this week of where the rocket is heading after research ministers approved a 600m euros programme of developments at their European Space Agency council meeting in Naples.

Work will continue to give Ariane 5 a major upgrade, to provide it with a more powerful upper-stage engine that will also have a stop-start capability.

These modifications will enable the vehicle to better optimize its payload capacity for heavier, more lucrative satellite customers - and also to offer a broader range of orbits to those clients.

This Mid-Life Evolution (ME), as it is known, is now scheduled to fly in 2017/18.

But ministers have not stopped there. At the same time, they want to see detailed studies to define the next generation rocket - an Ariane 6.

Early thinking is that this will be a smaller rocket than Ariane 5 with a modular design capable of lifting one satellite at a time weighing from three to 6.5 tonnes.

A final pronouncement on whether to proceed with the project is likely in 2014. A maiden flight could occur in 2021/22.

The Esa ministerial council outcome was warmly welcomed by Jean-Yves Le Gall, the man who heads up Arianespace, the commercial operator of Europe's big rocket.

"It was a great success," he told me. "Now we have a shining future. The most important consequence of the ministerial decisions is that our vision is now much further forward than it was before. Before we had just to launch Ariane 5. Now we have a reason which is launching Ariane 6 in 10 years' time, and I can tell you we have a lot of young people here who are very excited."
Ministerial meeting The research ministers of Europe will meet again in 2014 to review progress

There's been a lot of fuss recently about the impact that aggressive competitors will have on Ariane's market share.

You may have seen my interview last week with SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk wh ere he said Ariane 5 had "no chance" in the face of his new Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. The European vehicle could get nowhere near his prices, the entrepreneur contended.
"Start Quote

 If you really want to exist in this business you must be very humble because it's a difficult business"

Jean-Yves Le Gall Arianespace

Certainly, there've been plenty of people queuing up to echo the voice of doom on Ariane. French politicians, for example, who visited the SpaceX factory in California came away wanting a direct move to Ariane 6. The successor vehicle is expected to incorporate much cheaper components and fabrication methods than the current rocket, or indeed Ariane 5ME.

But Le Gall calls for cooler heads. Ariane 5 is not about to fall away. The rocket has a proven track record of reliability, and in the launch business that is everything.

"Some of our competitors, for instance Proton, are suffering almost one failure every year, which is huge. And I want to remind people that behind us we have 52 successes in a row.

"And there are other competitors, such as SpaceX, who speak a lot but have not yet launched a lot, and I think if you really want to exist in this business you must be very humble because it's a difficult business, and in my opinion you can only really speak when you have an excellent track record."

Le Gall accepts that Ariane 5 is pricey, but says he has fulfilled his commitment to constrain price by reducing the cost of operating the vehicle's spaceport in French Guiana by 20%.

But there is no magic formula that will reduce the industrial cost of producing the existing Ariane 5.
Ariane launch It's now 52 successful flights in a row

Unlike the SpaceX Falcons which are made in one place (more than 70% of a vehicle by value is made in the single factory), Arianes by definition are made across Europe. A dozen countries are involved in the Ariane 5ME project. This community approach must change long-term, and it is likely that the Ariane 6, when it arrives, will have an industrial base pretty much confined to France and Germany.

That may well offend some Esa member states but it's a fact of life that research ministers will have to grapple with when they gather again in 2014 to pronounce on the next phase of Ariane 6 development.

They should also have a clearer idea then of what this rocket should look like. It seems obvious, but Esa director general Jean-Jacques Dordain has been asking satellite operators precisely what they want.

"I've asked them, 'what is the launcher that you dream of?'; and they've given me their dreams," he told reporters in Naples.

"What I wish to do now is tell the launcher industry in Europe, 'OK, can you now fulfil the dreams of the customers?'.

"The customers want, obviously, the most reliable vehicle in the world - and at least on that, Ariane 5 is much more reliable than a lot of other vehicles. They want a launcher that is available, and that will launch between 3-3.5 tonnes and 6-6.5t. And, number four, they want a rocket that is cheaper than Proton and Falcon 9. This is the cahier des charges (specification base)."

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ESA, Germany Split on Test Site for Ariane 5 ME Upper Stage

Nov. 30, 2012


Technicians prepare a full-scale upper-stage rocket engine for testing in NASA's Plumbrook Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility. Credit: NASA photo

WASHINGTON — Following the European Space Agency's (ESA) decision to fly an upgraded version of its workhorse Ariane 5 rocket by 2018, ESA and NASA officials plan to meet in early January to discuss testing the launcher's new restartable cryogenic upper stage at NASA's Plum Brook Station in northwestern Ohio.

However, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, the head of the German Aerospace Center, or DLR, said his agency would like to run those tests itself, provided that a new facility comparable to the massive Plum Brook's B-2 Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility — which NASA bills as "the world's only facility capable of testing full-scale upper-stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated high-altitude conditions" — can be built at DLR's existing rocket test site in Lampoldshausen, Germany.

At a Nov. 30 Capitol Hill breakfast hosted by the Space Transportation Association, Woerner said DLR is competing to bring the Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution (ME) upper-stage tests to Lampoldshausen, despite ESA's preference to test at NASA's one-of-a-kind facility.

"ESA is in favor of going to the United States," Woerner said at the breakfast. "I, as head of the research center DLR, of course, would be happy if we could test it at DLR. The advantage of using the site in the United States is that you have it already. We don't have it at Lampoldshausen at DLR, but we would be eager to build one for it."

An ESA spokeswoman said the agency will not settle the issue until next year.

"Testing the upper stage of Ariane 5 ME at NASA's Plum Brook is still an option being considered," Brigitte Kolmsee, a Paris-based ESA spokeswoman said Nov. 30. "The decision to proceed or not with this is going to be expected in the second half of 2013."
NASA's Spacecraft Propulsion Facility (B-2)

There is one hitch to testing the Ariane 5 ME's upper stage in the United States: NASA's B-2 facility, built during the mid-1960s and last used for rocket propulsion testing in the 1990s, needs several million dollars worth of repairs before it can simulate an upper-atmosphere environment. NASA expects ESA to foot the bill for these repairs.

"There is no NASA funding for the refurbishment," NASA spokeswoman Rachel Kraft wrote in a Nov. 27 email. Kraft said NASA officials and their ESA counterparts "have been working on a draft test plan, and should ESA make the decision to test at B-2, which has yet to be made, it is expected that there will be a refurbishment of the B-2 test facility."

Astrium Space Transportation, a subsidiary of the Europe's EADS aerospace conglomerate, is under contract to build the Ariane 5 ME upper stage. The stage will be powered by a reignitable Vinci cryogenic engine, built by the Snecma division of Safran S.A. DLR has already tested the Vinci engine at Lampoldshausen.

Back in April, Jim Free, deputy director for NASA Glenn, said that the Plum Brook B-2 facility needed to have its steam ejection system overhauled to handle the tests ESA has in mind for the Ariane 5 ME's upper stage. The needed B-2 repairs would cost several million dollars, Free said. According to NASA, a fully functioning B-2 facility could accommodate engines that produce up to 1.8 meganewtons of thrust for tests lasting as long as 14 minutes.

ESA member nations have been working on Ariane ME since 2008. The heaviest Ariane 5 configuration in service today, Ariane 5 ECA, can launch about 10 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit. Most commercial communications satellites are dropped off there before using onboard propulsion to climb to geostationary orbit roughly 36,000 kilometers above the equator.

Germany and France, the two largest financial contributors among ESA's 20 European member states, have had a longstanding disagreement about what path the Ariane rocket family should follow to compete with emerging launch services providers in China, India, Russia and the United States.

Germany favored Ariane 5 ME, which provides a 20 percent increase in payload carrying capacity compared with the current Ariane 5. France argued for an entirely new and smaller rocket, Ariane 6, as Europe's best bet for remaining competitive in the commercial satellite launch market. Ariane 5 has carved out its position as the commercial launch market leader by lofting two satellites at once. Ariane 6 would launch only one satellite at a time.

At ESA's latest ministerial conference, held Nov. 20-21 in Naples, Italy, France acquiesced to Germany's preference for an Ariane 5 upgrade, resulting in an ESA commitment to spend 187 million euros ($243 million) on Ariane 5 ME development over the next two years. But in addition, ESA will spend 244 million euros to make sure that the Ariane 5 ME upper stage could also be used in future Ariane 6 designs. ESA member states agreed in Naples to revisit the Ariane 6 issue in mid-2014.

[Дмитрий В.]

Salo пишет:
 
 

Интересно, почему они отказались от совмещенных днищ и сделали конструкцию а-ля верхняя ступень Дельты-4 и Н-2А/В?

[SpaceR]

Дмитрий В. пишет:
Интересно, почему они отказались от совмещенных днищ и сделали конструкцию а-ля верхняя ступень Дельты-4 и Н-2А/В?

Так на снимке вроде как и есть ступень от "Дельты".
Для ариановской пока ещё рановато.

[Дмитрий В.]

SpaceR пишет:
Так на снимке вроде как и есть ступень от "Дельты".Для ариановской пока ещё рановато.

Да, пожалуй. Сбил с толку рисунок Ариан-6 в НК №6 2012. Там вторая ступень изображен с ферменным межбаком.

[SpaceR]

Думаю, ферма с выпуклыми днищами просто позволяют снизить конечную массу ступени, в ущерб массе МСО и общей длине. Если это допустимо, то почему бы и нет?

[Дмитрий В.]

SpaceR пишет:
Думаю, ферма с выпуклыми днищами просто позволяют снизить конечную массу ступени, в ущерб массе МСО и общей длине. Если это допустимо, то почему бы и нет?

Не думаю, что еконечная масса снизится. Возможно, снизится стоимость.

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/article/editorial-the-art-of-compromise#.UL0yDmfvqBg

[Старый]

Французам надо не тупить а срочно доделывать Винчи и делать ракету с выводом непосредственно на ГСО. Пока их американцы со своим новым поколением спутников только с ЭРД не оставили без хлеба. Мы, впрочем, тоже.

[Дмитрий В.]

Старый пишет:
Французам надо не тупить а срочно доделывать Винчи и делать ракету с выводом непосредственно на ГСО. Пока их американцы со своим новым поколением спутников только с ЭРД не оставили без хлеба. Мы, впрочем, тоже.

Французы, в общем, не против, только вместо Ариан-5 хотят видеть более гибкую и менее зависимую от конъюнктуры рынка Ариан-6

[Старый]

Дмитрий В. пишет:
Французы, в общем, не против, только вместо Ариан-5 хотят видеть более гибкую и менее зависимую от конъюнктуры рынка Ариан-6  

Дык чтоб тянуть непосредственно на ГСО ракета должна быть довольно таки изрядной.

[Дмитрий В.]

Старый пишет:

Дмитрий В. пишет:
Французы, в общем, не против, только вместо Ариан-5 хотят видеть более гибкую и менее зависимую от конъюнктуры рынка Ариан-6    

Дык чтоб тянуть непосредственно на ГСО ракета должна быть довольно таки изрядной.

8 с лишком тонн на ГПО, это в районе 4 т на ГСО (при довыведении с помощью ДУ КА). А если с помощью КВРБ то и существенно больше.