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of small satellite orders in 2014 and
adjusted our pricing accordingly,” he
said.
At the beginning of 2014, the com-
pany’s order book was dominated by
large satellites; by year-end it was
55% large and 45% small spacecraft.
Of the three large satellites ordered
in 2014, Arianespace bid on—and
won—just one. The company de-
clined to bid on the others due to a
lack of launch vehicle availability in
the customers’ specified timeframes.
Israel says in recent months Ari-
anespace has been buoyed by a
strengthening dollar, and the fact
that technical troubles have sidelined
two of its key competitors—ILS Pro-
ton and Sea Launch—over the past
year. As a result, the company has
reduced prices for launching com-
mercial satellites in the lower berth
of Ariane 5, while charging more for
larger spacecraft that ride in the top
position under the rocket’s fairing.
Internally, Israel said Arianespace
anticipates new cost efciencies this
year with the introduction of additional payload volume
under the Ariane 5 fairing and a new refueling facility in
Kourou that will provide more flexibility for the Soyuz and
Vega launch campaigns.
However, the company still relies on annual subsidies from
ESA member governments that amount to roughly €100 mil-
lion per year, and Israel said 2015 and 2016 will see the com-
pany benefit from a total of €210 million in ESA price supports.
More long-term, ESA member
governments have agreed to invest
€8 billion in new launch vehicle de-
velopments to keep Arianespace
competitive against emerging ri-
vals in the U.S., China, Russia and
India. Approved at ESA’s ministerial
meeting in Luxembourg last month,
the modular successor to the Ariane
5—known as Ariane 6—is designed
to match government requirements
for continued autonomous space ac-
cess while meeting future needs of
the commercial market.
Meanwhile, the company awaits
details of a merger between the space
units of Airbus Defense and Space
and France’s Safran, a joint venture
set up to oversee Ariane 6 develop-
ment while reorganizing Europe’s
sclerotic launch vehicle industrial
base. Israel said it remains to be seen
where Arianespace will fit into this
new company, dubbed Airbus Saf-
ran Launchers, though he said in the
near-term the merger will facilitate
a 5% reduction in Ariane 5 and Vega
costs before the more afordable Ariane 6 and Vega C come
online later this decade.
Addressing concerns over potential job cuts, Israel said
Arianespace plans to add five new posts in Kourou. However,
he said the greatest threat to jobs is stagnation, not change.
“Ariane 6 is good for Arianespace, and with the merger of
Airbus and Safran, there will be more career opportunities
in both companies,” he said. cAirbus Defense and Space expects to
qualify a new Ariane 5 payload dispenser
this year that can orbit four Galileo naviga-
tion satellites simultaneously.“GAO disagreed with Sierra Nevada’s arguments about
NASA’s evaluation, and found no undue emphasis on NASA’s
consideration of each oferer’s proposed schedule, and likeli-
hood to achieve crew transportation system certification not
later than 2017,” said Ralph O. White, managing associate
general counsel for procurement law at GAO, in announcing
the watchdog agency’s decision on the bid protest filed by
Sierra Nevada. “GAO also noted that, contrary to Sierra Ne-
vada’s assertions, the [request for proposals] clearly advised
oferers that their proposals would be evaluated against the
goal of certification by the end of 2017.”
Sierra Nevada had proposed the reusable lifting body as
one of the two commercial crew vehicles NASA is helping
industry develop as a post-space shuttle route to the ISS for
its astronauts. The company says its vehicle’s cost to NASA
was $900 million less than Boeing’s figure, and argued that
NASA changed its evaluation criteria to give more weight
to the schedule for getting to first flight than to the cost the
U.S. space agency must pay.
In his statement, GAO’s White cites prices of $3.01 bil-
lion for Boeing, $2.55 billion for Sierra Nevada and $1.75
billion for SpaceX. He also reveals that Sierra Nevada
charged that NASA’s review of “SpaceX’s price and over-
all financial resources” was “inadequate,” along with the
agency’s evaluation of mission suitability for the winning
vehicles and the winning companies’ past performance.
“Based on our review of the issues, we concluded that
these arguments were not supported by the evaluation re-
cord or by the terms of the solicitation,” White says, adding
that GAO would wait to release its decision document until
the companies have a chance to suggest redactions to protect
proprietary information.
“GAO expects to publish a public version of the decision
as soon as possible; however, the release of a public decision
may take a few weeks,” he adds.
The prices White cites apparently do not reflect the per-
flight cost the companies bid to deliver four-person crews to
the ISS. In announcing the contract award last fall, NASA
said Boeing’s contract would be worth as much as $4.2 bil-
lion, and SpaceX would receive as much as $2.6 billion for
flight test and up to six crew-transport missions each. Af-
ter SNC’s protest failed, the space agency said only that it
had been notified of the GAO decision and was “pleased”
that work on the commercial-crew development efort can
continue.
Late last year, the agency released funds to Boeing and
SpaceX to continue the development work, but citing the pro-
test, it has declined to say exactly how much each received.
“The case remains under the protective order and blackout
until the GAO releases its decision,” the agency says. cARIANESPACE