ARIANE 5 ECA ADAPTATION AND ARIANE 5 ES LAUNCHER PREPARATION FOR GALILEO FOC

摘要

With the Ministerial Conference 2014 decision of implementing Ariane 6 launcher as from 2020, Ariane 5 ECA launcher exploitation has to be maintained and continued until at least 2024. In view of the tightening of the conditions of the market for launch services, of the overall costs of exploitation and of the evolution of the mass of the satellites, an increase in the capacity in double launch of Ariane 5 ECA by lengthening the fairing volume and bringing its performance larger than 10,000 kg of payload in GTO appears today as an important factor for ensuring the competitiveness of the Ariane 5 ECA launcher till its planned end of life. With regards to the situation, ESA had already undertaken several performance improvement plans to reach above objective. A first performance improvement plan (with Slice 10 and Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)) initiated in 2009 has brought the Ariane 5 ECA launcher generic performance today up to 10 300 kg (total mass of payload including carrying structures). A second performance improvement plan (Upper Part Adaptation - UPA) was undertaken end 2013 and should bring the generic performance up to 10 550 kg beginning 2017 while increasing the payload available volume under the fairing, in particular for accommodating large electrical satellites. A third performance plan beyond 2016 which also takes into account launcher recurring price decrease aspects is today under consideration. In parallel, the Ariane 5 ES launcher with re-ignitable upper stage, developed and successfully used for the ATV missions is being adapted for the deployment of the Galileo Full Operation Capability (FOC) constellation with three planned flights which should be the last ones of the ES version. This launcher adaptation included the development of a dispenser for carrying and separating 4 Galileo S/Cs, the redesign of the VEB structure for mass saving purpose thanks to loads decrease compared to ATV mission and some electrical and thermal modifications of the launcher for the long duration ballistic phase. This program initiated in 2012 was very challenging in terms of planning with regards to the first launch foreseen now second half of 2016. This paper will address the different performance and fairing volume improvement plans for Ariane 5 ECA and then focus on the development and qualification of Ariane 5 ES launcher for Galileo FOC mission.