56 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/JANUARY 15-FEBRUARY 1, 2015 AviationWeek.com/awstFrank Morring, Jr. WashingtonForging Ahead
Bid-protest loss will not stop Dream
Chaser, Sierra Nevada says
S
ierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) says it “plans to further the
development and testing of the Dream Chaser and is
making significant progress in its vehicle design and
test program,” despite its failure to overturn NASA’s selec-
tion of its two competitors—Boeing and SpaceX—in bidding
for NASA’s planned commercial crew vehicles.
The Louisville, Colorado-based company says it plans to
propose the reusable lifting-body vehicle for the second-
round NASA competition to deliver cargo to the Internation-
al Space Station (ISS), and will continue to develop domestic
and international partnerships to further the development
without federal funding.
“SNC remains fully committed to being a part of returning
[U.S.] world-class human spaceflight and enhanced cargo ca-
pabilities to low Earth orbit,” the company stated Jan. 5 after
Government Accountability Ofce (GAO) attorneys rejected
its bid protest in NASA’s Commercial Crew Transportation
Capability (CCtCap) decision.
SNC had argued that NASA overemphasized the develop-
ment schedule in its selection of the Boeing and SpaceX cap-
sules for the flight phase of its public-private commercial crew
vehicle development, but GAO allowed the selection to stand.Amy Svitak ParisArianespace tallies 12 launches in
2014, predicts same this year
E
uropean launch consortium Arianespace expects to
post record revenues of €1.36 billion ($1.62 billion) in
2014, a year in which the company lifted 23 spacecraft
to orbit on 11 rockets and won half of the world’s commercial
launch business with signatures for nine new contracts.
Expected earnings make up for a disappointing turnover in
2013, when the Evry, France-based company reported a slight
loss—just €989 million in annual revenue—after launching
fewer satellites than forecast.
In 2014 the company launched six Ariane 5 heavy-lift rock-
ets, four European Soyuzes and one Vega light launcher from
its South American spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Arianespace also signed 14 launch contracts, including nine
for geostationary satellites slated to ride in the upper and
lower berths of the Ariane 5 ECA. In addition, two dedicat-
ed launches of European Galileo navigation spacecraft on
the Ariane heavy-lifter were signed—bringing the total to
three—along with two Soyuz missions and one Vega.
“For us, 2014 was a great year, one that really demon-
strates our ability to deliver on our manifest,” Arianespace
Chairman and Chief Executive Stephane Israel told reporters
during an annual press briefing here. Israel said the company
could have launched a 12th mission—Europe’s Intermediate
Experimental Vehicle (IXV)—in November, if the European
Space Agency (ESA) and French space agency CNES had not
postponed the mission in order to reevaluate its trajectory.Now slated for Feb. 11, IXV marks the first of what Israel says
will be at least 11 launches for the company in 2015, more than
half of which will be for European institutions and governments.
In addition to IXV, these include the Sicral 2 military
communications satellite owned by the French and Italian
governments; the European Meteorological Satellite orga-
nization’s MSG-4; the European Space Agency’s Lisa Path-
finder astronomy mission and Sentinel-2A Earth-observation
spacecraft; and a still-to-be-determined number of Galileo
navigation satellites for the European Commission (EC).
Arianespace says the EC has until the end of January to
decide whether to launch the Galileo satellites in pairs on two
Europeanized Soyuz rockets in the first half of this year, or
wait to lift all four using a new dispenser being qualified for
the Ariane 5 by prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space.
In addition to European government missions, Arianespace
plans to lift a dozen commercial communications satellites to
geosynchronous orbit (GTO) this year, including spacecraft
for DirecTV, Intelsat, Star One Arabsat, Eutelsat, the Indian
Space Research Organization and NBN Co. of Australia.
The company boasts a backlog of 29 customers and 38
launches worth more than €4.1 billion over the next three
years. A total of 22 Ariane 5s have been booked to lift 35 satel-
lites to GTO across 18 launches. Another four are dedicated
Ariane 5 missions. Arianespace also has six Soyuz and nine
Vega launches in the pipeline, with a total of 58 rockets on
order to cover anticipated business to 2019.
Israel said he expects 2015 to be a busy year for booking
new orders. By his count, a total of 28 commercial satellites
were ordered last year, only 18 of which have booked launchers.
“That leaves 10 coming on the market,” he said, in addition
to new satellite orders expected in 2015.
Israel said that not long ago small satellites were the focus of
future business as the company struggled to fill its lower berth
position on the Ariane 5 ECA. However, “we predicted a lotSPACERevenue Boost
Lifting-body development of the Dream Chaser will
continue without NASA funding.
NASA