This painting depicts a Soyuz rocket lifting off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Image Credit: ESA
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) – The first flight of Russia’s Soyuz carrier rocket from Europe’s space center in French Guiana has been scheduled for August 31, 2011, the Progress design bureau said on Wednesday.
On its maiden flight, the rocket will carry two Galileo navigation satellites. The Galileo system is similar to America’s Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russia’s Glonass.
The Soyuz-ST was originally scheduled to blast off with the French Hylas satellite on December 17, 2010, but the launch was called off. The French operator said it was because it had become clear that the Russian rocket would not be ready to fly by the end of the year.
The Russian Federal Space Agency and France’s Arianespace sealed a deal in 2008 to launch 10 Soyuz-ST carrier rockets from Kourou.
The Kourou Space Center’s proximity to the equator makes it an ideal location for the launch of geostationary satellites.
Copyright 2011 RIA Novosti. All rights reserved.
SpacePlex staff writers contributed to this report.
