Arianespace has signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) at the 2009 Paris Air Show to launch the first operational Galileo navigation satellites. Two Soyuz medium-lift vehicles are scheduled to loft the four spacecraft in pairs from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana beginning in the second half of 2010.
On a busy first day at the biennial air show event, Arianespace also entered into contracts with RUAG Aerospace for a series of payload adapters; and with Oerlikon Space AG for payload fairings – all to be used on the 35 Ariane 5 launchers for the upcoming PB batch ordered by Arianespace. The company signed a framework contract as well with ESA concerning the procurement of launch services for future ESA missions.