ESA Clears Russian Rockets For Kourou Launches

LAUNCH PAD

Soyuz set to unfurl its might from Kourou next year

Moscow (Interfax) Nov 16, 2001
The ministerial council of the European Space Agency (ESA) will endorse a license for Russia to launch Soyuz rockets from the Kourou space port (French Guiana) tentatively in March 2002, the ESA Russian office chief Alain Fournier-Sicre has reported to Interfax.

He said the ESA ministerial council, meeting on Thursday, passed a resolution on ESA development guidelines and on Space at the Service of European Citizens' policy. The document points out that cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space is an important element of building strategic partnership between Europe and Russia. No representative of Russia's Aviation Space Agency attended the ESA sessions that took place on Wednesday and Thursday, since Russia does not belong to the European Space Agency.

According to Fournier-Sicre, the ESA General Director was instructed to study all essential legal instruments for the ministerial council to make the final decision that would allow the launching of foreign rocket-boosters, including Russian Soyuz ones, from Kourou. Fournier-Sicre emphasized that the resolution was passed unanimously by representatives of all 15 countries making up the ESA.

"At present, the process of solving the problem of Russia's presence at Kourou is in the document drafting stage and all chances are that the decision will be positive, but it will take some time," said the ESA representative.

Talks with France for the use of the Kourou space port for boosting commercial satellites by Russian Soyuz rockets have been under way since early 1999. Experts say the French side is enticed by the relative cheap cost of Soyuz launches. In specialists' estimations, boosting a satellite by a Soyuz rocket would cost $30 million compared with $80 million spent on the launch of a satellite by an Ariane-4 rocket (of the Soyuz class).

The Russian side regards the location of the space port near the equator as lucrative. A rocket launched from the equator may have its payload significantly increased through centrifugal acceleration, the so-called catapult effect, caused by the earth's rotation.

The Kourou space port of France and the European Space Agency is situated in French Guiana (on South America's northeastern coast). It has two launch complexes for Ariane-4 and Ariane-5 rocket boosters.

SPACEMART

Australia Signs Space Launch Agreement With Russia

Canberra - May 23, 2001
Australia and Russia have signed a bilateral space activities agreement that will enable two separate launch projects to use Russian rockets for launching satellites from Christmas Island off Australia's north west in the Indian ocean at 10.5 degrees south, and Woomera in center al Australia.

ESA May Consider Soyuz Launches From Kourou Space Center In November

Moscow (Interfax) April 24, 2001
The European Space Agency (ESA) in November may consider the possibility of launching Russian Soyuz launch vehicles from the Kourou space center in French Guyana, French Minister of Research Roger-Gerard Schwarzenberg told a Tuesday news conference at the Interfax central office.

Come Back Big booster

Le Bourget (AFP) Jun 17, 2001
Innovative Russian engineers on Sunday showed off a reusable robot booster at the Paris airshow here, claiming their brainchild can lead to major cost savings for rocket launches. "This is the first step towards a fully reusable (launch) system," Khrunichev senior engineer Yuri Polushkin told AFP. It could offer savings of as much as 30 percent on the cost of a launch, he said.

ESA Books A Russian Taxi To ISS

Paris - May 21, 2001
ESA's Director General Antonio Rodot� and the Director General of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) Yuri Koptev recently signed an agreement for European astronauts to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on Russian Souyz launchers in the period 2001 to 2006.

Russian Proton Launches US ComSat PAS-10

Moscow (AFP) May 15, 2001
Russia successfully launched a Proton-K rocket carrying a US-owned communications satellite early Tuesday, Russian news agencies reported. The PanAmSat-10 satellite, which would ensure the communications flow for several countries of the Indian Ocean area, was launched from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 0111 GMT, the Interfax news agency reported.

Gazkom Plans To Launch Two New Yamal Satellites In 2002

Moscow (Interfax) April 19, 2001
Gazkom, the operator of the Gazprom satellite network, plans to launch two new Yamal communications satellites at the end of next year, company Deputy General Director Andrei Shestakov said at a conference of operators and users of satellite communications and broadcast networks in the Moscow region town of Dubna.

Energomash Hopes New Business Will Bolster Soyuz Maker

Moscow - April 15, 2001
A highly modernized version of the Soyuz launch vehicle, with engine from Energomash, will be launched in May 2001 with a Russian payload, Energomash General Director Boris Katorgin said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Russia Hopes To Launch New Angara Rocket In 2003

Moscow (Interfax) Feb. 13, 2001
Russia's Khrunichev Space Center intends to carry out the first launch of the principally new workhorse rocket the 'Angara' in 2003, Anatoly Kiselyov, the corporation's general director until recently told the press Friday.

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