Arianespace Arianespace is a French company for space launch systems developed by ArianeGroup, namely the Ariane and Vega launcher families, created in 1980. The company defines itself in its own terms as a "launch operator". Since 2007, following an agreement between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Arianespace has also been responsible for launching the Soyuz launchers.[1] The Ariane launch base, located in Kourou in French Guiana (Guyana Space Center), offers Arianespace a significant advantage over its competitors due to its proximity to the equator in an area free of any risk of tropical cyclones.[2] Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates the Ariane 6, a medium-to-heavy-lift rocket. Arianespace is a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and Safran. European space launches involve collaboration between private industry and government agencies. Arianespace is responsible for marketing Ariane 6 launch services, preparing missions, and managing customer relations. At the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana, the company oversees teams that integrate and prepare launch vehicles. The launch infrastructure at CSG is owned by the European Space Agency, while the site itself is managed by CNES, France's national space agency. The Ariane 6 rocket is designed and manufactured by ArianeGroup. As of October 2025, Arianespace had conducted 355 missions and launched over 1,100 satellites across a span of 45 years. Its first commercial launch, Spacenet 1, took place on 23 May 1984. In addition to its operations at CSG, Arianespace maintains its headquarters in Évry-Courcouronnes, a suburb of Paris. Even prior to the first flight of the Ariane 4 in 1988, development of a successor, designated as the Ariane 5, had already commenced. In January 1985, the Ariane 5 was officially adopted as an ESA programme, and began an eleven-year development and test program to the first launch in 1996. It lacked the high levels of commonality that the Ariane 4 had with its predecessors, and had been designed not only for launching heavier payloads of up to 5.2 tonnes and at a 20 per cent cost reduction over the Ariane 4, but for a higher margin of safety due to the fact that the Ariane 5 was designed to conduct crewed space launches as well, being intended to transport astronauts using the proposed Hermes space vehicle. Development of the Ariane 5 was not without controversy as some ESA members considered the mature Ariane 4 platform to be more suited for meeting established needs for such launchers; it was reportedly for this reason that Britain chose not to participate in the Ariane 5 programme. For several years, Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 launchers were operated interchangeably; however, it was eventually decided to terminate all Ariane 4 operations in favour of concentrating on the newer Ariane 5. During the mid-1990s, French firms By 2004, Arianespace reportedly held more than 50% of the world market for boosting satellites to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). During the 2010s, the disruptive force represented by the new sector entrant SpaceX forced Arianespace to cut back on its workforce and focus on cost-cutting to decrease costs to remain competitive against the new low-cost entrant in the launch sector. In the midst of pricing pressure from such companies, during November 2013, Arianespace announced that it was enacting pricing flexibility for the "lighter satellites" that it carries to Geostationary orbits aboard its Ariane 5. According to Arianespace's managing director: "It's quite clear there's a very significant challenge coming from SpaceX (...) therefore things have to change (...) and the whole European industry is being restructured, consolidated, rationalised and streamlined." During early 2014, Arianespace was considering requesting additional subsidies from European governments to face competition from SpaceX and unfavorable changes in the Euro-Dollar exchange rate. The company had halved subsidy support by €100m per year since 2002 but the fall in the value of the US Dollar meant Arianespace was losing €60m per year due to currency fluctuations on launch contracts. SpaceX had reportedly begun to take market share from Arianespace, Eutelsat CEO Michel de Rosen, a major customer of Arianespace, stated that: "Each year that passes will see SpaceX advance, gain market share and further reduce its costs through economies of scale." By September 2014, Arianespace had reportedly to sign four additional contracts for lower slots on an Ariane 5 SYLDA dispenser for satellites that otherwise could be flown on a SpaceX launch vehicle; this was claimed to have been allowed via cost reductions; it had signed a total of 11 contracts by that point, while two additional ones that were under advanced negotiations. At the time, Arianespace has a backlog of launches worth €4.5 billion with 38 satellites to be launched on Ariane 5, 7 on Soyuz and 9 on Vega, claiming 60% of the global satellite launch market. However, since 2017, Arianespace's market share has been passed by SpaceX in commercial launches. Since the first launch in 1979, there have been several versions of the Ariane launch vehicle: Ariane 1, first successful launch on 24 December 1979 Ariane 2, first successful launch on 20 November 1987 (the first launch on 30 May 1986, failed) Ariane 3, first successful launch on 4 August 1984 Ariane 4, first successful launch on 15 June 1988 Ariane 5, first successful launch on 30 October 1997 (the first launch on 4 June 1996, failed). Ariane 6, It has a similar payload capacity to that of Ariane 5 but considerably lower costs. Its first flight took place on 9 July 2024. Ariane Next, in early development. It will be a partially reusable launcher that should succeed Ariane 6 from the 2030s. The objective of this reusable launcher is to halve the launch costs.