Launch Services Alliance
Encyclopedia
In July 2003, Arianespace
joined with Boeing
Launch Services and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
to create the Launch Services Alliance. The flagship launchers for the Launch Services Alliance are Arianespace's Ariane
rocket, Boeing's Sea Launch
platform and Mitsubishi's H-II A vehicle. The agreement enables customers to seamlessly transition among three private spaceflight
platforms for maximum flexibility to ensure delivery to orbit
while allowing the Alliance's three members to retain their marketing
autonomy. The arrangement is roughly comparable to the airline
industry's "code sharing
" agreements.
Arianespace
Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial space transportation company. It undertakes the production, operation, and marketing of the Ariane 5 rocket launcher as part of the Ariane programme....
joined with Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
Launch Services and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
, or MHI, is a Japanese company. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi Group.-History:In 1870 Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of Mitsubishi took a lease of Government-owned Nagasaki Shipyard. He named it Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works, and started the shipbuilding business on a full scale...
to create the Launch Services Alliance. The flagship launchers for the Launch Services Alliance are Arianespace's Ariane
Ariane (rocket)
Ariane is a series of a European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne....
rocket, Boeing's Sea Launch
Sea Launch
Sea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets...
platform and Mitsubishi's H-II A vehicle. The agreement enables customers to seamlessly transition among three private spaceflight
Private spaceflight
Private spaceflight is flight above Earth altitude conducted by and paid for by an entity other than a government. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology augmented by collaboration with affiliated design...
platforms for maximum flexibility to ensure delivery to orbit
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
while allowing the Alliance's three members to retain their marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
autonomy. The arrangement is roughly comparable to the airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
industry's "code sharing
Code sharing
A codeshare agreement, sometimes simply codeshare, is an aviation business arrangement where two or more airlines share the same flight. A seat can be purchased on one airline but is actually operated by a cooperating airline under a different flight number or code...
" agreements.