Arianespace SA
| Launch Service Provider | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Courcouronnes, France |
| Revenue |
 €1.433 billion (2015) |
|
€4 million (2015) |
|
|
Number of employees
|
321 |
| Parent | ArianeGroup |
| Website | arianespace.com |
Arianespace SA is a multinational company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the production, operation, and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a diverse portfolio of launch vehicles: the heavy-lift Ariane 5 for dual launches to geostationary transfer orbit, the Soyuz-2 as a medium-lift alternative, and the solid-fueled Vega for lighter payloads.
As of May 2017[update], Arianespace has launched more than 550 satellites in 254 launches over 33 years (236 Ariane missions minus the first 8 flights handled by CNES, 17 Soyuz-2 missions and 9 Vega missions). The first commercial flight managed by the new entity was Spacenet F1 launched on May 23, 1984. Arianespace uses the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana as its main launch site. Through shareholding in Starsem, it can also offer commercial Soyuz launches from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan. It has its headquarters in Courcouronnes, Essonne, France, near Évry.
On 21 October 2011 Arianespace launched the first Soyuz rocket ever from outside former Soviet territory. The payload was two Galileo navigation satellites.
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Wikipedia