Aeronautics, Space and Defence

July 2003

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) has reached an agreement with Arianespace SA of Europe and Boeing Launch Services Inc. of the U.S. to assist mutually to ensure that their commercial satellite launches are made on time. This marks the first time that firms based in Japan, Europe and the U.S. have joined forces in the commercial rocket-launching business, although each company will still be responsible for marketing its own services. Under the agreement, the three firms will provide launch services for one another if there is trouble with their rockets, MHI's H-IIA, Arianespace's Ariane 5 or Boeing Launch Services' Sea Launch. MHI aims to attract new customers with the alliance, to drastically reduce the odds that the launches will be delayed. (July 30, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun)

Arianespace hopes to sign a pact to provide backup launch services for commercial-satellite operators with Boeing Co. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. by autumn. The potential agreement will be the first such cooperation between Japanese, U.S. and European companies in the space sector. Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall confirmed that the pact was under consideration last month, but declined to disclose details or offer a timetable for its implementation. The deal would allow the European satellite launch company's two competitors to step in and deliver customers' spacebound payloads such as satellites if any of its launches were stopped due to technical problems, and vice versa. Last year, Arianespace's most recently developed rocket had to be destroyed from the ground after veering off course. Le Gall also said that Arianespace and Japan's national space agency were discussing a similar backup agreement for the delivery of government payloads. He sees that agreement and the commercial pact that includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as the logical continuation of Arianespace's involvement with Japan. Arianespace opened an office in Tokyo in 1986 and has launched 27 spacecraft for Japanese customers. Last month, in the most recent of the company's three launches in 2003, the company put a Japanese television satellite into orbit. Japan's commercial space industry is beginning to show signs of coming into its own. Mitsubishi, whose "key role" in the alliance Le Gall emphasized, recently reported that it would likely win an order to launch a Spanish telecommunications satellite. The launch would mark the first commercial launch of Japan's new H-2A rocket, whose manufacture and marketing Mitsubishi took over from Japan's space agency in April.　（July 8,　Dow Jones）