ASAP and Future Concepts
Abstract
For any satellite customer, the key to “mission success” starts with the launch phase, one of the most important and sensitive periods in the whole development chain. This is especially the case for small missions built on small size platforms, for which clear rules and dedicated interface specifications must be established and followed to reach success. Although launch cost is a major driver for such missions, well established standards and corresponding experience must remain the basic parameters to keep in mind while selecting the launch service provider. This paper will first address Arianespace’s broad experience in launching small satellites from the company’s earliest days, thanks to the well mastered launch service and to “solution-oriented” hardware developed for such projects, in particular the ASAP structures and the dedicated “User’s Manual”. Then future activities will be addressed, describing the ideas and new concepts currently under study. This approach takes into account the increasing demand for even higher unit mass and size, and the coherence between the three launch vehicles of the Arianespace family: Vega, Soyuz and Ariane 5.
ASAP and Future Concepts
For any satellite customer, the key to “mission success” starts with the launch phase, one of the most important and sensitive periods in the whole development chain. This is especially the case for small missions built on small size platforms, for which clear rules and dedicated interface specifications must be established and followed to reach success. Although launch cost is a major driver for such missions, well established standards and corresponding experience must remain the basic parameters to keep in mind while selecting the launch service provider. This paper will first address Arianespace’s broad experience in launching small satellites from the company’s earliest days, thanks to the well mastered launch service and to “solution-oriented” hardware developed for such projects, in particular the ASAP structures and the dedicated “User’s Manual”. Then future activities will be addressed, describing the ideas and new concepts currently under study. This approach takes into account the increasing demand for even higher unit mass and size, and the coherence between the three launch vehicles of the Arianespace family: Vega, Soyuz and Ariane 5.
