Apr 11 2005
From The Space Library
Russian space officials and officials from the French rocket company Arianespace signed an agreement in Moscow allowing Russia to launch medium-weight satellite payloads from ESA's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Under the agreement, Europe would provide 344 million euros to build a launchpad for Russian Soyuz rockets, and Russia would erect a tower for the launchpad, ship the rockets from Russia, and make any changes to the rockets necessary for them to operate in the equatorial climate. Locating launches at the equator would allow Russia to increase the weight of its payloads from 1.6 tonnes (1,600 kilograms or 1.7 tons) to about 3 tonnes (3,000 kilograms or 3.3 tons). The arrangement also filled a niche that Arianespace's two rocket fleets did not. Arianespace Vega rockets launched small scientific satellites weighing no more than 1.5 tonnes (1,500 kilograms or 1.65 tons) into a low orbit. The two models of Ariane 5 rockets could launch payloads weighing 6.6 tonnes (6,600 kilograms or 7.3 tons) or 10 tonnes (10,000 kilograms or 11 tons), respectively, into geostationary transfer orbit. Expecting to launch three or four Soyuz rockets per year, beginning in 2008, Arianespace had already booked three launches from Kourou using the Russian Soyuz rocket~launches of one Australian telecommunications satellite and two French scientific satellites. (Maggie McKee, “Russian Rockets To Launch from South American Base,” New Scientist, 13 April 2005.)
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