Tuesday May 12, 2009, Bucharest, Romania - European Space Agency (ESA)(www.esa.int) prime contractor EADS ASTRIUM(www.astrium.eads.net) together with French partner SECATECH(www.secatech.net), revealed today the recent strategic alliance forged with Romanian manufacturing firm: WORLD MACHINERY WORKS (WMW). The Romanian subcontractor is to become the key supplier of a unique machine tool used in the production of the Ariane 5 space launcher. This landmark deal represents an important milestone for Romanian national industry as the first substantial direct contribution to European commercial space activities.

WMW and SECATECH's combined lathe machine tool, which is scheduled for delivery to ASTRIUM by 2010, is unique due to its extravagant dimensional capabilities. Like most common metalworking lathe machines it spins a block of sheet-metal to perform various operations such as cutting, drilling, or deformation of the work piece creating a final product which has complete symmetry about the axis of rotation. Unlike most other lathe tools, however, which are used to produce relatively modest sized objects such as table legs, musical instruments and auto-crankshafts, this tool will be capable of creating complex three-dimensional metal leviathans of up to 6 meters in diameter.(www.fabricadebani.ro)

Such remarkable tooling constraints are an essential requirement for manufacturing the impressive Ariane 5 (www.arianespace.com)main rocket stages, which the lathe tool will be commissioned to do. Since it became operational in 1997, the Ariane 5 has been used to launch satellites for communications, Earth observation and scientific research into geostationary orbit, medium and low-Earth orbits and sun-synchronous orbits. Lift-off takes place at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana where ESA has a launch site as well as facilities to integrate the solid boosters and produce the solid propellant used by the launcher.

The success of this pivotal deal is the culmination of several months' effort by the ASTRIUM procurement organization, dedicated to locating and negotiating with numerous potential suppliers across Europe and ultimately selecting the most capable partners. ASTRIUM has also been and continues to be in close contact with the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA)(www.rosa.ro), mutually exploring future commercial possibilities lurking within the country's blossoming industrial sectors. Officials from both ASTRIUM and ROSA assert that this first significant procurement from WMW should only pave the way for many more joint business ventures to come.