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Preparing for Vega N°23 - September 2001 PreparingPreparing forfor Editorial oming back after fifteen years to take VVega...ega... C charge of the Directorate of Launchers makes me feel rather like a latter-day Ulysses. Like him, I am struck by the magnitude of the changes that have taken place. I remembered Launchers as an engineers’ paradise, but find myself in a hard-nosed business world. There have been some revolutionary changes. Firstly, we’ve had a commercial revolution, the signal for which, in Europe, was given with the creation of Arianespace. Secondly, there is structural revolution, with vertical industry consolidation in the USA and Europe. At the same time, a far-reaching cultural revolution has taken place. Just try to imagine fifteen years ago someone suggesting that Russian rocket engines might be used in US Air Force launchers! Amidst all these changes, things have been remarkably quiet on one front: most of the technology we use today dates back fifteen years. This is a challenge that has yet to be faced. Ariane is a paragon of excellence in Europe. If we are going to consolidate and build on it, the launcher sector must adapt to the larger world around us. We need to broaden the role played by governments, including strategic investment and market intervention. We need to open the sector to international cooperation, while strengthening European solidarity. Finally, we must greatly accelerate the development of new technologies. ■ Jean-Jacques Dordain Director of Launchers European Space Agency http://www.esa.int/launchers Directorate of Launchers Reaching for the Skies News in brief… at Ma NEWS IN BRIEF 2 Major firsts for Envisat • Major firsts for Envisat •Busy schedule leading up to arrived on an Ministerial Council Antonov aircraft in • Kourou gets boost from EPCU-S5 two parts: the • Beluga delivers choice caviar Service Module, INTERVIEW 4 y responsible for with Jean-Jacques Dordain r keeping the satellite • The new Director talks about operational, and a Europe’s launcher industry and his the Payload Module vision for the future housing the actual m PREPARING FOR VEGA 6 mission instruments. •A report from Fiatavio’s Colleferro Measuring some m manufacturing complex ten metres high Vega team roster completed 10 u • Perspectives from Stefano Bianchi once assembled, s and Mauro Balduccini Envisat will call for a Two tried-and-tested stands 12 large fairing. This is for the new launcher going to be a first, • Focus on the test stands on Sardinia as is the use of the and in Kourou brand-new EPCU LIFTING THE BONNET ON 14 payload preparation ARIANE-5 complex (see facing •A survey of the major launch page). Only two of missions as presented at the Paris the three rooms will Air Show in June be used: ES5-C for A NEW WINDOW ON 16 satellite integra- THE STARS tion/verification and •Take a spin in cyberspace The Envisat campaign was ushered in ES5-A for filling with propellants. The on 26 March with the arrival in campaign continued through to French Guiana, on container ship “Le 14 July with a break until Toucan”, of various items of ground mid-August; the launch MORE Reaching for the Skies equipment. More followed as air is scheduled for the end of on the Contributions (in English or French) should be sent to ■ WEB the coordinator: cargo on 9 and 16 May. Envisat itself the year. Philippe Willekens, ESA - D/Launchers 8-10, rue Mario-Nikis, F-75738 Paris Phone: (33)1 5369 7388 Fax: (33)1 5369 7678 E- mail: Philippe.Willekens@esa.int Busy schedule leading up to Writing: Michel Guyon Editors: Bruce Battrick & Huguette Sawaya Ministerial Council Layout: Eva Ekstrand Illustrations : Richard Roussel Business scheduled for the November Ministerial meeting of the ESA Council Photos: ESA-CNES-Arianespace-Service optique CSG, includes many decisions awaited regarding launchers: Ariane-5 Plus develop- Air Liquide, Cyospace, Snecma Moteurs Photo reportage (pages 6 to 11): Daniella Theis ment, funding to meet the fixed costs of the CSG and the Ariane launch sites, the Ariane Research and Technology Accompaniment programme and the reusable Published and distributed by: ESA Publications Division – ESTEC, launcher issue, plus the response to Russia’s request to launch Soyuz from Kourou. Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk – The Netherlands In the meantime, attention is focussing on preparing for these decisions, at two Phone: (+31)71 565 3400 levels. To deal with matters specific to launchers, the Ariane Launcher Programme Fax: (+31)71 565 5433 Board will be meeting monthly. In parallel, a Council Working Group - likewise © 2001 European Space Agency meeting monthly but addressing the broader agenda - will integrate “launcher” Printed in The Netherlands ISSN 1013-9041 business with that relating to the “Space Station”, “Applications” and “Science”. ■ 2 EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ch 25 News in brief… at Mach 25 can be conducted simultaneously at the EPCU. Its great asset is its air- cushioned payload transit passages between the three main clean rooms. And while the satellite constellations that this configuration was designed to handle are now on hold, the EPCU, with its 3000 m2 of clean rooms and 20 metre high ceiling, will not be lying idle. “With the larger spacecraft now on the way, this is no luxury,” says Philippe Rolland. Especially as the complex will also have to accommo- date the nine Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) intended for servicing the International Space Station. Kourou gets boost from EPCU-S5 “We would never have been able to prepare ATVs in the old rooms. While With the opening of the EPCU-S5 in check out their hardware. The payload four-to-five tonne satellites can be Kourou, things will never quite be the would then be transferred by lorry to handled using standard gantries, same again. Inaugurated only an area a safe distance away from things are quite different when you’re recently, the new payload preparation office buildings for fuelling. “In each manoeuvring gigantic hardware complex - cofunded by ESA (30%) and case, precious time was wasted on weighing over 20 tonnes,” explains Arianespace (70%) - will radically alter packing and unpacking,” explains Rolland. how things are done at Europe’s Philippe Rolland, Arianespace mission Thanks to these unique assets, EPCU- Space Port. manager. The operation was then S5 should make it possible in the short Until now, satellites were accommo- repeated for the journey to the final term to increase turnaround dated in the first instance in a building assembly building. rates, now that Kourou has MORE on the reserved for non-hazardous opera- But from now on, while the trip goes four filling rooms instead of tions. There, the customers would via the BAF, all preparatory operations just one. ■ WEB Beluga delivers choice caviar! Munich airport, 28 February. Rather like an Ariane-5 whose fairing parts to release its payload, the “Beluga” Airbus half opens to deliver its cargo. The comparison is apt enough, as the cargo in question is none other than the dynamic model of the ESC-A cryogenic upper stage – the upgrade soon to be fitted to Ariane-5. It will have taken Astrium five months to complete its integration, in Bremen (D). What is more, a new multi-purpose integration stand was also inaugurated and validated in the process. Next stop for the ESC-A: a campaign of tests at IABG in Ottobrunn (D). ■ Directorate of Launchers 3 Reaching for the Skies Interview with the new Director of Launchers Jean-Jacques Dordain Last February able amount of attention to the Jean-Jacques Delegations. This type of contact is a crucial part of the preparations for a Dordain replaced Ministerial Council. Delegations need Frederick Engström to understand the logic behind our at ESA’s Directorate proposals, and we need to under- of Launchers. In an stand what they expect from the launcher programmes. interview with RFS he talks about his Vega – your first major first impressions task? This programme was decided just two and his personal months before I arrived, so it was my management style, predecessor who should be credited gives his take on with rallying the support needed to the current market, initiate this programme. Now we have to start constructional work, looking and outlines his ahead to 2005 and the first launch. strategy. This will be the first time that ESA will be managing the technical side of the development of a launcher, so it is a real challenge. I have already detected in what’s going on. So I a lot of enthusiasm, among the ESA hold weekly meetings with teams as well as in industry. all the staff, reviewing what was discussed the Looking further ahead, previous week, the results, what is your assessment of and the prospects for the the global market for Tell us a bit about your first upcoming week. I hope that it helps launchers? few months on the job. them in their work. The market is changing very rapidly. I’m still in the learning stage. The Today it consists mainly of large important thing for me is to establish a And outside the geostationary communications satel- close relationship with my new Directorate? lites. But parallel to this coveted colleagues. I’m someone who prefers I thoroughly enjoyed the conceptual segment, there is also a smaller, much talking to people around a table, work that I did in the Strategy more diverse institutional market that rather than on the phone or by e-mail. Directorate, but it’s worlds apart from includes scientific satellites and inter- So I don’t even have a computer in my working with a roaring engine on a planetary probes, but also the ATV for office! I’m trying to apply what I launcher.
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