Russia, Arianespace Sign Contract to Build Soyuz Launch Pad
Posted on: Tuesday, 12 April 2005, 00:00 CDT
MOSCOW. April 11 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Space Agency and France's Arianespace signed a contract on Monday to build a launch pad for Soyuz rockets in the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
Russian Federal Space Agency head Anatoly Perminov and Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves le Gall are signatories to the document.
"Financing of the Soyuz Kourou project will start with the contract signing," a source in the Russian Federal Space Agency said.
An agreement to launch Russian Soyuz rockets from Kourou was reached at a ministerial session of the European Space Agency Council in May 2003. The total cost of the project is 344 million euros.
In addition, the project will triple the capacity of Soyuz rockets, which can put in geo-stationary orbits 4 tonnes of payload instead of 1.5, as the Kourou spaceport is closer to the equator.
The first launch of a Soyuz-2 rocket with a digital control system from Kourou is scheduled for early 2007.
The Kourou spaceport is under the French jurisdiction, and launch pads are property of the European Space Agency.
Source: Daily News Bulletin; Moscow - English
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