In the highly competitive world of commercial rocketry, those who lift big, earn big. At a time when private firms and governments are developing their own satellite constellations and heavy communication satellites, there is a rapidly growing need for launch vehicles that can ferry these satellites to space.
It is under such market conditions that commercial launch service providers NewSpace India Limited (NSIL is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization) and the French firm Arianespace have entered into a long-term strategic partnership.
While eleven nations have demonstrated the capability to place their satellites into orbit, it must be remembered that very few of them (either government agencies or private entities) have the wherewithal to perform such launches in a dependable and consistent manner.
Operating a commercial ferry to space is a high-risk and low-return business, which is why there are very few operators in this segment.
Arianespace has been ferrying its customers’ satellites to space since the early 1980s and the commercial arm of ISRO has been doing so since 1999. That makes both these entities credible and reliable launch service providers, with the legacy of having launched hundreds of customer satellites. Not many government agencies or private entities have such a track record.
Business potential – Communication satellites and LEO constellations
Communication satellites facilitate television broadcasting, satellite radio, satellite phones, and much more. Typically, communication satellites are bulky, owing to the large amounts of fuel that they carry, the number of transponders on board, and the long operational life of the craft, which is anywhere between five to fifteen years.
Satellites that are under this category can weigh anywhere between four tonnes to fifteen tonnes and there are very few rockets in the world that can put these satellites into orbit.
Startlink, EutelSat OneWeb, Project Kuiper, are among the popular entities, in addition to governments that are establishing constellations of hundreds (if not thousands) of satellites in low earth orbit (anywhere between 500-200 km above the earth).
Such constellations are meant to beam down high-speed (4G-like) internet to remote places on the earth, where conventional internet and communications services are unavailable or scarce.
With each launch, these entities look to loft a few dozen satellites into orbit and this requirement can be fulfilled by only very few rocket variants. Putting together a constellation requires regular and dependable launches in a time-bound manner.
Owing to evolving geopolitical scenarios, the use of Russian rockets by foreign customers has dwindled, following the Ukraine-Russia conflict. While China has capable rockets, their fleet is used predominantly to launch their own national or commercial missions and there is very limited exposure to international customers. This is why the list of medium-lift and heavy-lift rockets is very limited for prospective customers.
The Indian LVM3 rocket and the upcoming Arianespace Ariane 6 rocket are capable of undertaking these kinds of missions. India’s LVM3 has placed communication satellites in orbit and also demonstrated how it can ferry 36 satellites in a single launch, to build a satellite constellation.
The Ariane 5 rocket (retired in 2023) has undertaken hundreds of missions of such kind and proven its mettle, which is why Arianespace hopes to continue the same with its successor, the Ariane 6 rocket.
In terms of communication satellites, the Indian LVM3 can loft crafts weighing four tons, whereas the bigger variant of Ariane 6 can lift 11.5 tonnes.
When it comes to launching multiple satellites into low earth orbit, the LVM3 can launch payloads weighing a total of eight tonnes, and the bigger variant of the Ariane 6 can launch payloads weighing more than 20 tonnes.
The only rocket in the International market that operates in a comparable class is the SpaceX Falcon9 reusable rocket, which can lift more than 22 tonnes to low Earth orbit and communication satellites weighing more than eight tonnes.
Recently, NSIL announced that its 4.7 tonnes GSAT-20 satellite, a high-capacity communication satellite would be launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
How will NSIL and Arianespace work together to ‘Lift big and earn big’?
While NSIL and Arianespace have the kind of rockets that are being sought by customers, they face a challenge in terms of the number of launches per year.
Given that both LVM3 and Ariane 6 are expendable rockets (unlike the reusable Falcon 9), each rocket has to be entirely built from scratch and launched. Therefore, there are obvious limitations on the manufacturing capacity and the infrastructure to perform more than a handful of launches per year.
In comparison, SpaceX Falcon 9 has done more than 290 launches in its 13 years of operations, with more than 91 Falcon 9 launches in 2023 alone.
According to D. Radhakrishnan, Chairman and Managing Director of NSIL, the long-term partnership between the two companies is to meet the Global commercial satellite launch service market needs. Together, both LVM3 and Ariane 6 would support customer needs, he says.
Elaborating on this, he said that the Indian LVM3 could ferry satellites for Arianespace if the French firm had a launch requirement from a customer and did not have a rocket available at that time.
Vice versa, the Ariane 6 vehicle would be used to launch the satellite for NSIL, when an Indian rocket is not available to meet NSIL’s customer demands, he told WION.
As per this agreement, the respective entities would be launching their rockets from home soil – LVM3 from ISRO’s spaceport in Sriharikota, India, and Ariane 6 from Kourou, French Guiana.
He believes that such an arrangement which combines the strengths of both established commercial launchers would help reach out to new markets and customers.
In order to achieve the capability of stepping up in times of need, he said that India is working with its homegrown industry to increase the production capacity of its LVM3 rocket. For context, the LVM3 rocket has been operational for almost a decade now and has flown seven missions (all successful).
While India has managed to improve the production capacity of the LVM3 and launched three of these rockets between October 2022 and July 2023, this is still inadequate when it comes to commercial operations.
Radhakrishnan told WION that the Indian establishment is working towards gradually ramping up to four or five LVM3 launches per year and eventually six to seven launches, considering the commercial demand that they expect.
With the Ariane 5 rocket retired in mid-2023, Arianespace is now working towards getting the Ariane 6 ready for its maiden flight, which is expected mid-2024.