3...2...1...Blast off!

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Picture Courtesy: Arianespace

3...2...1...

68 > QATAR TODAY > FEBRUARY 2014

BLAST OFF!

ON AUGUST 29, 2013, ES'HAIL 1 WAS LAUNCHED INTO SPACE ON AN ARIANE 5 ROCKET BELONGING TO ARIANESPACE. THE COMPANY’S CEO STÉPHANE ISRAËL, WHO WAS IN DOHA RECENTLY, TAKES US INTO THE BUSINESS OF SPACE TRANSPORTATION WHILE TALKING ABOUT THE EXCITEMENT OF HELPING QATAR LAUNCH ITS FIRST SATELLITE.

BY AYSWARYA MURTHY

W

e had assumed that in the course of getting Es'hail 1 off the ground (literally),Stéphane Israël would have made several dozen trips to Doha already.

But he surprises us with the information that this is his time in the city and he is still in fresh awe of it. “I arrived at night and caught sight of the lights of West Bay and The Pearl. It’s obvious that the country is booming. It was such a contrast from Europe, where the situation is vastly different.

That’s a long story,” he says with a sigh. “But here, you can actually see that many big things are happening.”

By the time Israël took over as the top man at Arianespace in April last year, the contract with Es'hailSat was already signed and the technicalities ironed out. All that was left to deal with was a deadline and the hopes of a tiny nation making its first grasp at space technology. “This was one of the first contracts that came to my attention as soon I joined. I had to take care of it because it was such an important one for Qatar. A

country’s first satellite is always special. We had a deadline (before the end of August last year) and a promise that we’d deliver on time and in quality,” he mentions. Added to this pressure was the fact that Israël greatly admired and was on cordial terms with the previous Ambassador of Qatar to France, Mohammed Al Kuwari, and Es'hail 1 was jointly owned by Eutelsat, one of Arianespace’s key customers.

Thankfully, the satellite was launched without a hitch, and during the very first launch window, top-level dignitaries and media from the country descended on the launch station at the Guiana Space Centre to witness the monumental event. “We had the opportunity and honour to have HE Hessa Al Jaber, the Minister of ICT with us along with Es'hailSat CEO Ali Al Kuwari and a contingent from Al Jazeera, so fortunately there were no delays,” he says.

“It was an emotional moment, not only for them but for us also, when we got to see how much the satellite matters to Qatar. As an important nation and emerging power, having a satellite was important. It was an QATAR TODAY > FEBRUARY 2014 > 69

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“With Es'hailSat’s announcement that it has already started defining Es'hail 2 (the first one only began broadcasting a month ago), the satellite company will start looking at finalising the launch service provider soon. Probably beginning as early as the first part of 2014, Israël predicts.”

STÉPHANE ISRAËL Chief Executive Officer Arianespace

70 > QATAR TODAY > FEBRUARY 2014

honour to be part of the success story which took place in the framework of a very strong relationship with our friends in Qatar,” he says.

And he was here to continue that friendship and strengthen their working relationship. With Es'hailSat’s announcement that it has already started defining Es'hail 2 (the first one only began broadcasting a month ago), the satellite company will start looking at finalising the launch service provider soon. Probably beginning as early as the first part of 2014, Israël predicts. “We are currently still in the discussion phase. But we are surely highly motivated about the second launch as well. All we have to do is convince our customer that we are the best solution for Qatar, and we have several good arguments,” he says confidently. And why shouldn’t he? – history and hard numbers are on his side (see next page).

So how soon and how deeply does a space transportation company, responsible for the rocket, and launch preparation and operations and the commercial and customer relationship, get involved in the satellite launch process? Israël breaks it down for us. “The manufacturers, customers and launchers are involved in the discussion

very early because the type of rocket has to be matched with its payload capacity. Also, the customer would want to know about the choice of rockets available to them. After this the satellite company will narrow down on the technical solution and freeze the definition of the satellite with manufacturers before checking back again with the launchers to choose the right rocket and its availability for the launch. So if they want to launch in 2016, the contract has to be signed during the first half of 2014, giving us the 18-36 months we need to prepare for the launch.”

Israël says that when it comes to commercial satellites, Arianespace is aware of the purpose of the satellite (“We knew Es'hail 1 was for broadcast, would be used

by Al Jazeera primarily and also some government usage”), unlike when it is a government or defence one. “We don’t enter into details in that case, and we are not supposed to have all the information on what the satellite will be used for,” he says.

Arianespace provides three different complementing rockets for its customers to suit their individual launch needs. Vega is for small payloads; Soyuz, an intermediate one, is used for traditional satellite constellations; and finally the Ariane 5 is a heavy rocket that has a maximum capability to put a 9.5-tonne satellite into orbit. Each of these are bought from different rocket manufacturers – the A5 from Astrium (part of Airbus), Vega from Avio, an Italian company, and Soyuz from the Russians.

The space transportation market is a strange and complex one to read. Every year there are more than 100 satellites launched, Israël says, and the competition is open for – and companies like Arianespace can bid for – only about of quarter of these. And yet new companies are entering the field (Elon Musk’s SpaceX comes to mind; NASA has given it a sizable contract to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, wanting a new choice of rockets, and as a means to introduce competition in the internal market) while several countries are starting to develop their own launch capabilities. “India, for example, is a very big space power with 30 years of experience in space. They have decent capacity in the form of its PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle),” he says.

But through all this, and with the relatively slow progress of space technology (the first Soyuz rocket was sent into space in 1957 and is still in operation), Arianespace has managed to retain its market leadership for over 30 years. “Space technology is complex. Sending a satellite into geostationary

Picture Courtesy: Arianespace

orbit is not like manufacturing a car. Everything has to be checked and rechecked a million times. After developing the rocket, you have to manufacture it and then you need a launch pad to operate it. For example SpaceX, which was established 10 years ago, is just testing its new rocket. [Since the time of the interview, SpaceX has launched its first rocket] To master the rocket system requires a lot of capacity, and once you enter the market you can’t just launch one rocket a year. Either you have to be part of a huge internal institutional market like that in the US or, like Arianespace, have a big presence in the commercial market.”

Even though Israël maintains that Arianespace's competitors are limited, and he counts them off with one hand, the extremely niche nature of the market puts a lot of pressure on the company, he admits. Current competition includes ILS, a US-Russian joint venture that operates the Proton rockets, SpaceX and the Indian Space Research Organisation (for the smaller rockets), Japanese H2 rockets and occasionally ULA (a consortium made up of Boeing and Lockheed Martin), who make Atlas and Delta rockets.

Brazil is working on a small launcher and India is looking to expand. “India’s upcoming GSLV will be a competitor for bigger satellites as well. But right now their big satellites are launched with Arianespace.

In fact, we recently signed on two satellites for India to be launched by end of 2014 and 2015,” he says. Though China has the rockets and huge launch capacity it is not in the game. “There is American legislation against buying Chinese rockets even if there is an American component in the satellite,” he says.

ARIANESPACE STATISTICS

Es'hail 1 arrives at the launch station

ARIANESPACE HAS BEEN IN OPERATION FOR 30 YEARS AND HAS MORE THAN 50% OF THE COMMERCIAL SATELLITE LAUNCH MARKET. IT HAS HAD 57 SUCCESSFUL LAUNCHES IN A ROW WITH THE A5 OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS. THE COMPANY HAS MADE 12 CONSECUTIVE LAUNCHES AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THEIR LAUNCH WINDOW.

What has been working for Arianespace is that the A5 is far more reliable than any of the rockets of their competitors. “For an operator, especially when you don’t have many satellites, you don’t want to take the risk of failure, which is the worst situation to happen, though it’s part of the business.

When you have a failure, insurance will cover the customer’s loss. But we, as the launcher, must understand what happened and it then can take three to five months to return to flight. Proton had an important failure in July last year, and they returned to business only in October. It’s not the end of the story but for sure it is far better for a launch service provider to show that the risk of failure is relatively insignificant,” he reminds us.

All in all, Israël is optimistic about the market. “In Europe and the US there might be a plateau, but Asia, South America and, tomorrow, African countries will need more and more satellites for governments, telecommunications, internet connectivity and television broadcast.” The commercial market is only bound to increase, and Arianespace is sitting pretty to meet this growing need QATAR TODAY > FEBRUARY 2014 > 71