Soyouz à Kourou

SAINT-PETERSBOURG (Russie), 7 nov 2009 (AFP)

Le premier tir d'une fusée russe Soyouz depuis la Guyane française est prévu "au deuxième trimestre" de 2010 avec un satellite de télécommunications britannique, a annoncé samedi le PDG d'Arianespace Jean-Yves Le Gall à l'AFP.

© 2009 AFP

For the past 40 years, Russia's cosmodromes in Baikonur and Plestesk have been home to the Samara Space Center's Soyuz launcher, but from next year, South America will play host to the world's most frequently launched rocket.
In July 2010, the flight of a Soyuz 2-1a from French Guiana will be the first use of a Russian rocket outside European Russia or a former Soviet state. French Guiana was studied as a Soyuz launch site in the 1990s. Its equatorial location enables the rocket to place 3,000kg (6,600lb) into geostationary orbit, compared with 1,800kg from Baikonur.
Transported by ship from St Petersburg, the first two Samara Soyuz 2-1a rockets arrived in French Guiana on 23 November. By May 2010, the first of these will be moved to the assembly building for preparation.
Transported by ship from St Petersburg, the first two Samara Soyuz 2-1a rockets arrived in French Guiana on 23 November. By May 2010, the first of these will be moved to the assembly building for preparation.
The Soyuz launch complex in French Guiana is in the municipality of Sinnamary and is largely a replica of Baikonur.
Next year will see three Soyuz launches, two of 2-1a and one of 2-1b. The July launch is for UK-based Avanti Communications' Hylas satellite. October will see France's Pleiades orbited and the third launch, in November, will be for the first two Galileo satellite navigation satellites. For their orbit, they need the Soyuz 2-1b with its better upper stage.
The planned launch rate is four a year and the minimum lifespan for Sinnamary is 15 years. The site differs from Baikonur in having a mobile gantry - the tower that protects the rocket from weather. Its assembly has begun.
Delays with the gantry's development and other problems, including having to dynamite granite for the flame trench, have been blamed for the two-year delay. Scheduled to fly in 2008 and originally costed in 2002 at €344 million, including a €121 million investment by Arianespace, the delay has pushed the final bill up to €405 million, also in 2002 euros. It had been rescheduled for an April 2009 launch, but in June this year the Italian space agency confirmed the delay to 2010.
Arianespace says Sinnamary launches cost €70 million ($105 million), while Baikonur launches are marketed by the company's Russian venture, Starsem.
Despite no Russian announcements about commercial launches from its planned far eastern cosmodrome, Vostochny, Baikonur and Sinnamary may get competition from the new site, which could be a public/private venture. At an investment conference in October, the Amur region's governor said investors from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea were interested. Funded mostly by the Russian government funded, research for Vostochny's construction began in 2008. According to Russia's Federal Space Agency, it will cost Rb400 billion ($13.86 billion).
It is planned to replace Baikonur, for which Russia pays Kazakhstan $115 million a year, which suggests Vostochny will have a commercial role. Employing 20,000 people, it will occupy 550km² and is reached by the Chita-Khabarovsk highway, the trans-Siberian railway or its 4,500m (14,700ft) runway.
Vostochny and Sinnamary may both also see human spaceflight. After 2015, Vostochny will launch the new Russian manned spacecraft, and France's space minister said in October that French Guiana could launch astronauts for exploration. They would use the Soyuz-FG launched Energia Soyuz TMA spacecraft.
The European Space Agency's Soyuz manager, Didier Coulon, sees no problems. "It's a very limited modification to the launch pad and we need a clean room for the astronaut preparation."

Le premier tir d'un lanceur russe Soyouz-ST depuis le centre spatial de Kourou, en Guyane française, est prévu pour le 17 décembre 2010, a annoncé vendredi le directeur de l'Agence fédérale spatiale russe (Roskosmos) Anatoli Perminov à la chaîne télévisée Rossia-24.

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"La date du tir est officiellement fixée au 17 décembre", a indiqué le responsable.
M.Perminov a précisé qu'il avait effectué une visite de travail au cosmodrome où le 11 mai s'était tenue une réunion du comité consultatif chargé du programme de tirs, regroupant Roskosmos, l'Agence spatiale européenne (ESA), le Centre national français d'études spatiales (CNES) et le groupe Arianespace. Toutes les parties avaient confirmé que le premier tir du lanceur aurait lieu au dernier trimestre 2010.
Le programme "Soyouz au centre spatial de Kourou" est réalisé sur l'initiative de l'ESA. Roskosmos contrôle les entreprises russes participant au programme et le CNES est le maître d'œuvre du projet et l'architecte du programme.
Bien que le premier lanceur Soyouz-ST, censé mettre en orbite le satellite commercial Hylas 1 du groupe Avanti Communications, soit déjà prêt, son tir a déjà été reporté à plusieurs reprises.
Arianespace prévoit de tirer le deuxième lanceur de ce type en 2011.

Arianespace Buying 10 More Soyuz Boosters

PARIS — As the new Soyuz launch site at Europe’s South American launch center near Kourou, French Guiana, takes shape, Arianespace has signed a framework agreement to buy 10 more Soyuz boosters.
The company has 17 Soyuz launches to perform, including five for Europe’s Galileo satnav system, but to date has only 14 of the Russian medium-lift rockets on order.
Workers in Kourou have put the external panels on the mobile gantry for the Soyuz pad, moving it into the final stage of construction. Unlike the original Soyuz pads at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the rockets are moved to the pad by rail and erected there, at Kourou the launch vehicle’s payloads will be integrated in the vertical position to follow the Ariane practice, and moved to the pad in the mobile gantry.
Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency, says the first Soyuz launch from Kourou will come in the fourth quarter of this year. However, the payload for that inaugural mission remains unclear.
Avanti Communications, owner of the Hylas-1 spacecraft that was scheduled as the first Soyuz payload from Kourou, now says it will be orbited in the third quarter.

Arianespace: 12 lancements depuis Kourou en 2011 (médias)

Le consortium Arianespace projette d'effectuer 12 lancements spatiaux depuis le centre guyanais de Kourou en 2011, dont trois fusées russes Soyouz-ST, ont annoncé mardi les médias mondiaux, citant le PDG du consortium, Jean-Yves Le Gall.
Selon lui, le premier tir du Soyouz-ST depuis la Guyane française aura lieu dans le courant de l'été 2011. "Cela veut dire plutôt vers le mois d'août", a-t-il expliqué aux journalistes, ajoutant que les deux autres Soyouz seraient lancés d'ici la fin de l'année.
La mise en œuvre du projet Soyouz au Centre spatial guyanais ouvrira à la Russie et à l'Union européenne de nouveaux horizons en matière d'utilisation de l'espace extra-atmosphérique. Grâce à son positionnement dans la partie équatoriale de la Terre, ce centre permettra au lanceur russe de placer en orbite géostationnaire des appareils plus lourds que les satellites lancés depuis les cosmodromes de Baïkonour (Kazakhstan) et de Plessetsk (nord de la Russie).

Soyuz sees the light in French Guiana

Preparations for the first Soyuz launch from the European Space Agency's spaceport in French Guiana made a highly visible step forward last week when the 52m (170ft)-tall service gantry made its maiden roll-back from a fully assembled Soyuz rocket.
Launch operator Arianespace moved the gantry as part of a virtual countdown and launch in anticipation of a flight in October. The gantry allows payloads to be integrated with a Soyuz rocket upright, instead of horizontal as at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
ESA will also fly its lightweight Vega launcher for the firs time this year, giving it two new alternatives to its heavyweight workhorse, Ariane 5.