On Friday, March 23, 2012, Arianespace’s first Ariane 5 mission of the year, on behalf of the European Space Agency, successfully launched the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle), designated Edoardo Amaldi, to the International Space Station.

Monday, 13 February 2012 at 10:00 Universal time saw the successful launch of the first Vega by the European Space Agency (ESA), putting 2 scientific satellites and 7 picosatellites into orbit. Thanks to this historic success, Arianespace now has the largest range of commercial launch services.

Today’s mission, performed from Baikonur Cosmodrome by the Starsem affiliate of Arianespace, carried the latest cluster of second-generation satellites for Globalstar and utilized the medium-lift Soyuz. This was the third of four such launches contracted to Arianespace by Globalstar for its latest series of spacecraft, and the six payloads orbited during the 1 hour, 40 minute mission will join Globalstar’s constellation that provides voice, Duplex and Simplex data products and services.

On Wednesday, September 21, Arianespace orbited two communications satellites, Arabsat 5C for the operator Arabsat, and SES-2 for the operator SES, using an Ariane 5 ECA rocket.

On Friday, December 16, 2011 at 11:03 pm local time, Arianespace successfully launched the second Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in French Guiana, orbiting the Pleiades 1A, ELISA and SSOT satellites for French space agency CNES, Astrium and the French and Chilean defense ministries.

Arianespace opened a new chapter in space history today with a milestone double mission success that marked the Soyuz launcher’s inaugural flight from French Guiana, and which placed Europe’s first two Galileo navigation satellites into orbit. Transitioning from preliminary thrust level to its full thrust output while on the launch pad, the no. 1 Soyuz is seconds away from lifting off from French Guiana.

On Saturday, August 6, 2011, Arianespace successfully launched two satellites mainly intended for direct-to-home (DTH) television broadcasting: ASTRA 1N for the Luxembourg-based operator SES Astra, and BSAT-3c/JCSAT-110R for the American manufacturer Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, as part of a turnkey contract for the Japanese operators B-SAT Corporation and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation.

On Friday, May 20, Arianespace orbited two communications satellites: ST-2 for the operator ST-2 Satellite Ventures Pte Ltd., a joint venture of Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) and Chunghwa Telecom Company Limited (Chunghwa), and GSAT-8 for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

On Friday, April 22, Arianespace orbited two communications satellites: Yahsat Y1A, built by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space for Al Yah Satellite Communications Company PrJsc (Yahsat) of the United Arab Emirates, and Intelsat New Dawn, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation for New Dawn Satellite Company Ltd., a joint venture between Intelsat and Convergence Partners.

On Wednesday, February 16, Arianespace’s first mission of the year successfully launched the second ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle), designated Johannes Kepler, for the European Space Agency. 200th Ariane launch, 56th Ariane 5 launch, 42nd success in a row.