With a new Soyuz launch site under construction at the Centre Spatial Guyanais outside Kourou, French Guiana, Arianespace and Russian space agency Roscosmos have signed a contract for 10 Soyuz launches.
The additional launches and related support will run until 2016. The deal brings the total of number of Soyuz flights from the centre to 24.
Arianespace already has 17 Soyuz launches on the books for various customers, including five for Europe's Galileo navigational satellite system.
With the three launch vehicles, including Soyuz and Vega, in full operation, Arianespace is targeting a flight activity of around 10 missions a year from French Guiana - composed of an average seven Ariane 5 flights annually, plus two Soyuz missions and one Vega launch.
The Soyuz-ST is a modification of the Soyuz-2 three-stage launcher, with Fregat upper stage, adapted specifically for launch conditions at Kourou. The Soyuz launch site there combines design elements from the launch site at Baikonur cosmodrome with satellite integration procedures for Ariane missions.
In the joint venture, the Russian side will provide development, manufacturing, delivery of Soyuz-ST, ground technological pre-launch and launch equipment and propellant components while the European side is developing the technical facilities, and managing construction efforts, says Roscosmos.
Source: Flight International
