New launch site for Russian rocket

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Moscow, June 1, Ria Novosti/ACSNA/IRNA -- The last details of a 
project to launch the Russian Soyuz rockets from the Kourou space 
center in French Guiana have been settled. 
As part of the 314 million-euro project, the European Union is 
to give Russian contractors 121 million euros (the first tranche has 
already been received and distributed to Russian companies working on 
the project). 
The other 193 million euros will go to the European contractors 
working on the infrastructure of the space center. Work on the 
launch pad has already begun. 
According to experts, once the project is complete it will become 
a milestone in the Russia-EU space research partnership. The EU will 
get an excellent medium-class carrier rocket and Russian firms will 
be provided with work for many years. 
The Russian rocket will expand Europe`s potential on the global 
launch services market as aside from the Soyuz, Europe has the 
Ariane-5, a heavy launcher, and will soon have the Vega, a light 
launcher. These rockets will enable Europe to launch any type of 
cargo. 
The Soyuz has been the workhorse for Russian cosmonautics since 
the legendary Semyorka was used to put the first satellites and 
manned spacecraft into orbit and has been used in this capacity 
longer than any other rocket in the world. 
Foreign experts have described the rocket as "robust, inexpensive,
and reliable." It costs 35 million euros to launch a foreign 
spacecraft with a Soyuz rocket in Russia. 
Europe has been paying attention to this Russian launch vehicle 
for a long time. In 1996, the Starsem (Space Technology Alliance 
based on the R-7 Semyorka Launch Vehicles) joint venture for 
commercial operation of the Soyuz rocket was created. 
Aerospatiale (now EADS) has a 35 percent stake in the venture, 
Arianespace has a 15 percent stake, and Soyuz producer TsSKB Progress 
and the Russian Federal Space Agency each have 25 percent stakes. 
Progress is adapting a Soyuz-2 rocket that can be launched from 
the Kourou space center. 
The Soyuz/STK (Starsem-Kourou), the adapted rocket, will have a 
huge payload that can accommodate larger spacecraft, more powerful 
engines and a new digital control system for more precise trajectory 
adjustment. 
The Soyuz/STK flight test program will begin in Baikonur in late 
2004 and its the first commercial launch from Kourou is scheduled 
for December 2006. 
The rocket will be used to put the French Corot (Convection, 
Rotation and Planetary Transits) satellite into orbit. 
The Soyuz/STK will then be used to launch the Smart 2, Bepi 
Colombo and the first cluster launch for Galileo, the European 
orbital navigation system. 
The Soyuz will have a separate launch pad near Sinnamari, a 
village 10 kilometers north of the Ariane-5 site. The new launch pad 
will include an umbilical tower and a stationary maintenance tower 
with retractable service platforms. 
A separate launch site for the Russian rocket is being built "in 
order to develop local infrastructure and for strategic economic 
reasons." 
Russian trains and European ferries will transport the Soyuz/STK 
launch vehiles to Kourou and Starsem will take responsibility for the 
launch procedures. 
Kourou has certain operational advantages over Baikonur and 
clearly over Plesetsk, another Russian space center. 
The geographical position of a launch site is an important factor 
in the mass of cargo that can be put into a geo-stationary orbit as 
the closer the launch site is to the equator, the heavier the cargo 
can be. 
A Soyuz launched from Kourou will be able to carry 2.5-3 times 
more payload than the same rocket launched from Baikonur, which will 
make these inexpensive launches even more competitive. 
The possibility of launching manned spacecraft from Kourou with 
Soyuz rockets is also being discussed; however, the geographical 
advantages of the location are less important because the 
International Space Station (ISS) has an orbit inclination of 51.60 
degrees. 
The launch site`s proximity to the equator adds to the initial 
speed of the launch vehicle, but cargo bound for the ISS must be 
directed north and the greater flight distance negates the speed 
advantage. 
However, Russian experts see another more important disadvantage 
to launching manned ISS missions from Kourou: it is unsuitable for 
search and rescue operations. 
No matter how reliable a launch vehicle might be, an emergency 
situation is always possible and Russian search and rescue techniques 
are mostly for land operations. The emergency landing area for a 
spacecraft launched from Kourou will most likely be at sea. 
The Kourou space center is not highly useful for independently 
manned near-equatorial launches as a launch of this kind puts 
spacecraft into orbits that cover a minimum observation area of the 
earth and are beyond the range of Russian ground-based flight control 
systems. 
Europe has promoted the Kourou project more actively than Russia 
because the Russian national space research program does not need 
such a site as much as Europe does. Developing the Plesetsk 
infrastructure is a much more important program for Russia because 
it will help launch spacecraft to near-polar orbits. 
However, space research is a big business and launching 
satellites is very profitable. Spending over 300 million euros for 
the Soyuz launch pad, the European Space Agency believes that the 
investment will be recouped within 10 years, although marketing the 
modern launch pad has many problems. Russian firms will also profit 
from the program. 
When the Kourou launch site for the Soyuz is completed (and a few 
doubt it will not be), the Soyuz will become the first launch vehicle 
to be launched from three countries--Kourou in French Guiana, Baikonur
in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk in Russia. 
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