Engineers will complete a series of minor adjustments on Europe's Ariane 5 rocket to raise its payload-carrying capacity to about 9,200 kilograms to geostationary transfer orbit - compared to around 8,900 kilograms currently - by the end of 2010, the chief executive of launch services provider Arianespace said.rnJean-Yves Le Gall, who has long argued that the global commercial-launch market is over-supplied, said there may be signs already of a coming drop in demand for commercial launches.rnBy Arianespace's count, 24 commercial launch contracts have been signed so far in 2009. On the face of it, this would appear to be a banner year for the industry. But only 16 of these contracts have been for new satellites. The remaining eight are for satellites that were previously booked by one launch service provider but later transferred to another.
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机译:发射服务提供商Arianespace的首席执行官将对欧洲的Ariane 5火箭进行一系列较小的调整,以将其对地静止轨道的有效载荷运载能力提高到约9,200千克(目前为约8,900千克)。长期以来一直争辩全球商业发射市场供过于求的吉恩·伊夫·勒加尔(Jean-Yves Le Gall)表示,可能已经有迹象表明商业发射的需求正在下降。根据阿丽亚娜航天公司的统计,已经有24项商业发射合同到目前为止,该协议已于2009年签署。从表面上看,这似乎是该行业标志性的一年。但是这些合同中只有16份是用于新卫星的。其余八颗用于先前由一家发射服务提供商预订但后来又转移到另一家的卫星。
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