Launch Services Alliance is a "back-up"

launch service provider A launch service provider (LSP) is a type of company which specialises in launching spacecraft. In 2018, the launch services sector accounted for $5.5 billion out of a total $344.5 billion "global space economy". It is responsible for the ordering ...

. It is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between the multinational aerospace company

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese conglomerate

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

; initially, the American aerospace firm Boeing Launch Services was involved as well. LSA was established during 2003. In the event of one of the commercial partners not being able to execute a launch on time, one of the other partners could provide an alternative service, under a set of contractual conditions agreed between the participating companies. Such transfers would be made at the customer's discretion. The LSA offer this service for the

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...

and

H-IIA H-IIA (H-2A) is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. These liquid fuel rockets have been used to launch satellites into geostationary orbit; lunar or ...

expendable launch system An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are either destroyed during reentry or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of several rocket sta ...

s; it previously offered the

Zenit-3SL The Zenit-3SL is an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999, it has been launched 36 times, with three failures and one partial failure. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and is built by the Yuzhnoye ...

as well. During 2007, LSA was restructured by Arianespace and Mitsubishi; the principal difference being that Boeing had decided to no longer associate itself with the venture.

History

Following the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

and the institution of the

peace dividend ''Peace dividend'' was a political slogan popularized by US President George H. W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the light of the 1988–1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, that described the economic benefit of a decrease in d ...

, the aerospace industry went through a period of consolidation,

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

s and partnerships. More specifically, a glut in affordable space launches during the early 2000s placed incumbent providers under pressure to respond. During 2001, the

ese conglomerate

and American aerospace firm Boeing Launch Services announced the formation of a strategic alliance to cooperate on various space-related opportunities; specifically, this alliance applied to space-based communications, air traffic management, multimedia, navigation, space and communications services, launch services and space infrastructure markets. During July 2003, the Launch Services Alliance (LSA) was originally formed, then consisting of the multinational aerospace company

with

ese conglomerate

and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

aerospace firm Boeing Launch Services; at this time, Boeing provided

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999–2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial lau ...

launch services at that time. The decision to switch between launchers is made by the end customer. Despite the formation of LSA, the three partner companies retained autonomy over their own operations and continued to independently market their respective commercial satellite launch capabilities. For Arianespace, its involvement in LSA represented a further diversification of their launch services. During October 2003, LSA services were used for the first time when Arianespace transferred satellite

DirecTV-7S The DirecTV satellite fleet is a group of communications satellites located at various geostationary orbits that DirecTV uses for their satellite television service and HughesNet (formerly known as ''DirecWAY'' and ''DirecPC'') internet service. T ...

delayed in manufacturing to the Zenit-3SL launch on 4 May 2004. During May 2004, the first contract for LSA services was signed for the

Optus D1 This is a list of the satellites operated by Optus, an Australian telecommunications company. The satellite communications facility is located at Belrose on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Optus' satellites are divided into 4 classes A, B, C and D. As ...

satellite; Ariane 5 was assigned as the primary launch vehicle while the Zenit-3SL was served as backup. During 2005, LSA announced that the organisation had signed its fifth contract. During April 2007, the LSA was reformed by Arianespace and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; the main change being the withdrawal of Boeing from any involvement in the venture. Since fiscal year 2007, responsibility for both production and management of the H-IIA launch system was transferred to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the partnership with Arianespace was hoped to help the former enter the market.

References

{{Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Commercial spaceflight Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Space organizations