European Space Agency

:This article is about the European Space Agency. For other meanings of ESA, see ESA (disambiguation).

Launch vehicle fleet

ESA has made great progress towards its goal of having a complete fleet of launch vehicles in service, competing in all sectors of the launch market. ESA's fleet will soon consist of three major rocket designs, Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega. Rocket launches are carried out by Arianespace, an ESA subsidiary (a minority share is held by EADS as well), at ESA's spaceport in French Guiana. Because many communication satellites have equatorial orbits, launches from French Guiana are able to take larger payloads into space than from other northern spaceports.

Related Topics:
Ariane 5 - Soyuz - Vega - Arianespace - EADS - Spaceport

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Ariane 5

The Ariane 5 rocket is the primary launcher of the ESA. Its maximum estimated payload is 6-10 metric tons to GTO and up to 21 metric tons to LEO. The launch craft has been in service since 1997 and replaced the Ariane 4. The Ariane rocket exists in several specifications, the heaviest one of these is the Ariane 5 ECA that has been successfully launched in February 2005 for the first time, after it failed during its first test flight in 2002. {{ref|ariane}}

Related Topics:
Ariane 5 - GTO - LEO - 1997 - Ariane 4 - Ariane 5 ECA

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ESA's Ariane 1, 2, 3 and 4 launchers (the latter of which was ESA's long time workhorse) have been retired.

Related Topics:
Ariane - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

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Soyuz launch vehicle

Soyuz is a Russian medium payload (ca. 3 metric tons to GTO) launcher to be brought into ESA service in 2007 {{ref|soyuz2}}.ESA has entered into a 340 million euro joint venture with the Russian Federal Space Agency over the use of the Soyuz launcher {{ref|soyuzcoop}}. Under the agreement, the Russian agency will manufacture Soyuz rocket parts for ESA, which will then be shipped to French Guiana for assembly. ESA benefits because it gains a medium payloads launcher, complementing its fleet while saving on development costs. In addition, the Soyuz rocket — which has been the Russian's space launch workhorse for some 40 years — is proven technology with a good safety record, which ESA might be happy to use for launching humans into space.

Related Topics:
Soyuz - GTO - 2007 - Russian Federal Space Agency

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Russia also benefits in that it will get access to the Kourou launch site. Launching from Kourou rather than Baikonur will allow the Russians to almost double the Soyuz payload (3.0 tonnes vs. 1.7 tonnes), because of Kourou's closer proximity to the equator. Both sides benefit from the long term strategic cooperation that in addition will be used to jointly develop future technology.

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It is perhaps worth noting that France (ESA's largest contributor) has historically had good relations with Russia, which contributed to reaching the agreement. (See EuroNews report about the joint venture (Real video stream).)

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Vega

Vega is ESA's small payload (ca. 1.5 metric tons to 700 km orbit) launcher; its first launch is planned for 2007 {{ref|Vega}}. The leading ESA's member state for the Vega Programme is Italy contributing 65 % of the costs. Vega itself has been designed to be a body launcher with three solid propulsion stages and an additional liquid propulsion upper module to place the cargo into the exact orbit intended. For a small-cargo rocket it is remarkable that Vega will be able to place multiple payloads into orbit.

Related Topics:
Vega - 2007 - Italy

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See also: ESA's Vega Brochure

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