Russian Rockets Face Competition From Vega

Vega's upper composite, comprising LARES, ALMASat-1, seven CubeSats and the fairing, was transferred to the pad on 24 January and added to the vehicle at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Credits: ESA - M. Pedoussaut, 2012

Space News reports that nine years of European effort coupled with a bout of inflation have produced a Vega rocket that can compete with Russian boosters for launching small payloads:

Europe’s Vega small-satellite launcher, whose inaugural flight is scheduled for mid-February, will be sold commercially for about 32 million euros ($42 million) per launch — a price that can compete with converted Russian ballistic missiles, Vega officials said Jan. 23.

In briefings at Europe’s Guiana Space Center spaceport here on the northeast coast of South America, where Vega is nearing the end of nine years of development, program managers said the rocket’s competitive position is even better than it was at the start of development.

“Our belief is that we can charge up to 20 percent more per launch than our biggest competitors and still win business because of the value we provide at the space center here and with Arianespace,” said Francesco De Pasquale, managing director of ELV SpA, the Italian company that is Vega’s prime contractor….

A wave of inflation in Russia has driven up the prices of both rockets “radically” in recent years, according to Antonio Fabrizi, head of the launcher division for the 19-nation ESA. Fabrizi said a recent ESA decision to assign Vega the launch of two European Sentinel Earth observation satellites was only made after a competition with Rockot. “We believe in competition in the sector,” Fabrizi said.

Rockot, which is a German-Russian joint venture, is one of a trio of converted Soviet ICBMs vying for a piece of the small launch market. The other two are Dnepr, which is a Russian-Ukrainian collaboration; and Cyclone-4, which is a Ukrainian rocket set to launch from Brazil in 2013.

India’s PSLV booster also serves this market, as do some Chinese Long March rockets. SpaceX’s Falcon 1e would have competed in this market segment, but the company has placed development on hold.

Meanwhile, RIA Novosti is reporting that Russia has decided to continue launching Dnepr rockets, which are decommissioned SS-18 Satan ICBMs. It is not clear why Russia might have been considering retiring the program.

The SS-18 missiles are gradually being retired from Russia’s Strategic Missile Force (SMF) and converted into launch vehicles. There are 52 missiles remaining in the SMF.

The story quotes Ukrainian space agency head Yuri Alekseyev as saying two launches are planned this year. The first, set for April or May, will carry Korea’s KOMSAT-5 satellite. The second rocket will launch a cluster of Arab satellites in September or October.