There was held a gala ceremony of transfer of the symbolic "keys" from the Soyuz launching facility constructed by Russian specialists to the Arianespace Concern (France) on May 7, 2011, at the Guiana Space Center, located near the city of Kourou in the French Guiana (South America). The project with the total value of EUR 334 mln is implemented by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roskosmos on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement between France and Russia entered into in 2003. Especially for this project, a three-stage carrier rocket Soyuz-ST was designed by the State Scientific Production Rocket Space Center Central Specialized Design Bureau-Progress (Samara), and an upper-stage rocket Fregat-SB was developed at the Scientific Production Enterprise named after S. Lavochkin (Khimki, Moscow Region). The complex is located 10 km away from the site from where European space vehicles Ariane-5 are launched. Our segment occupies approximately 2 km2. The launching site in South America means that Soyuz will be the only carrier rocket launched from the territory of three countries: Russia (Plesetsk), Kazakhstan (Baikonur) and French Guiana (Kourou). In the near future our equipment will launch into orbit two satellites for the European navigation system Galileo. Nataliya Yachmennikova, observer of the Rossiiskaya Gazeta, analyzed this promising space exploration project. As explained by Yachmennikova, Soyuz-ST was designed on the basis of a modified rocket R-7* developed in the 1960s. The space vehicle meets all safety, telemetry and operational requirements of the French spaceport located at the equator: it was developed and constructed with a new element base, components and metals adapted to tropical conditions (temperature--34°C, humidity--90 percent and higher). Even paint operations were carried out in line with a special technology. By the way, Soyuz-ST will be assembled in a vertical position right at the launching pad. This t ... Читать далее