The scene is the French Guiana launch site for Arianespace – a spaceport that has been a busy hub for commercial satellite liftoffs for decades.
A new milestone is to be met this year – the first launch from that facility of a Russian Soyuz launcher.
Once Soyuz joins Arianespace’s launcher family, this vehicle will have a unique distinction: It operates from three sites worldwide.
— From the Spaceport in French Guiana for Arianespace’s commercial missions.
— From the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
— From the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
In French Guiana, the first Soyuz is undergoing its initial assembly checkout in preparation for Arianespace’s maiden commercial flight from the spaceport in French Guiana later this year, according to an Arianespace press statement.
The activity is part of a regular maintenance check that is standard for Soyuz launchers in storage awaiting liftoff. The build-up process is also being used to qualify assembly procedures in the spaceport’s new Launcher Integration Building for the Russian-built medium-lift workhorse.
This is one of two Soyuz 2-1a vehicles that were delivered to French Guiana last November, and it is scheduled for launch before the end of 2010 with the HYLAS telecommunications satellite for Avanti Communications.
By LD/CSE