In an interview with AFP on the sidelines of a space summit in Colorado Springs (United States), Stéphane Israel recognizes that the choice of the American colossus, a mark of "trust", adds "pressure" to his teams then that the future European launcher must make its very first test flight at the end of the year.

QUESTION: Amazon selected Arianespace as a participant in the Kuiper satellite broadband internet project, with 18 out of 83 shots. What's your reaction?

ANSWER: In this partnership, we are the only non-American rocket, and the only rocket that does not have either an industrial or a capital link with Amazon.

For us, this figure of 18 is very important because we wanted to do two things: make a massive commitment to this project, which we have always considered to be an exceptional opportunity for Ariane 6 - we are obviously very confident in its implementation - and at the same time, we wanted to keep a capacity linked to the contractual commitments already made: there are 11 Ariane 6 in the backlog (of orders), we wanted to take into account the fact that there would probably have an average of four Ariane 6s for the European institutions per year (...) and we wanted to keep availability for other customers.

This is the result of more than two years of work, with Amazon, and between Arianespace and its entire European supply chain to arrive at the best possible offer.

In addition, of these 18 rockets, 16 will have even more capacity, knowing that Ariane 6 from the start had been designed to be an evolving program whose performance could increase.

The rockets which will fly for this customer will not be the same as those which will be put in place on the occasion of the inaugural flight.

Q: Exactly, Ariane 6 hasn't flown yet, doesn't Amazon's trustmark add extra pressure to you?

A: It's unheard of for a launcher to be reserved at this point even before its maiden flight, it's unheard of in the history of Ariane.

This shows how much we were able to convince a leading client to trust us, it also shows that the demand for access to space has never been so strong.

Indeed the two key words are great confidence in the Ariane 6 project and positive pressure to hold the maiden flight and ensure the ramp-up.

The flight is still scheduled for the end of 2022, it will be a first qualification flight.

There are risks, I can't say it's in the pocket, but that's the goal.

Q: With this order, will you have to increase Ariane 6 production rates?

A: There are still one or two years, we were afraid of completely collapsed rates for Ariane 6, due to increased competition, due to the decline in the geostationary transfer orbit market, and there through this contract and these prospects, we are totally in the opposite scenario.

Ariane 6 was designed for approximately 11 launches per year.

The Guyanese spaceport is capable of making about twenty, so there is no problem in increasing the rate in Guyana.

If we were to go beyond 11 launches, we would have to make investments in the industrial chain.

In view of market expectations, one can wonder if this is not the next step.

Between an institutional demand that we hope for at least four per year and extremely strong commercial prospects, it could be rational in the second half of the decade to switch to a model with a rate of 15 annual rockets.

© 2022 AFP