News: PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING SOYUZ LAUNCH COMPLEX AT KOUROU CONTINUE

04 August 2003 07:37

PREPARATIONS FOR BUILDING LAUNCH COMPLEX AT KOUROU CONTINUE

The platform is being readied for the building of the complex, for
which goal they have begun to clear the jungle, a representative of
Preparations continue in French Guinea for the building of a launch
complex at the northern end of the Kourou cosmodrome under a Russian-
European project that anticipates the beginning of commercial Soyuz
rocket launches. Russia's aerospace agency Rosaviyakosmos has
announced. In French Guinea, the hot and humid conditions bring on
seasonal rains, so the rocket has to be further worked on. It is
necessary to He also announced that specialists from the Samara-based
Progress, which makes the workhorse Soyuz rockets, have begun working
on modernizing the rocket in tropical conditions. replace the
directional system and engines, he said. The source told Interfax that
for Europe the Soyuz project at Kourou is extremely important. Now
there will be an entire range of Russia's European partners are
allocating 314 million euros for building the launch complex for
Russian rockets. This decision was made late last May at the council
of the European Space Agency country- participants at the ministerial
level, where several of the countries have already presented numbers
for their participation in the project. The Kourou launch site will be
built by Russian specialists. Russia's partners have earmarked 121
million euros for equipment In particular, France will cover 50% of
the overall financing, Germany 6%, Switzerland 1%-2%. The next step
will be signing a cooperation agreement in the field of rocketry
between the agency and Rosaviyakosmos, including the Soyuz at the
Kourou cosmodrome and joint design work on new-generation rocket
technology. This will happen soon. rockets at the European cosmodrome:
the heavy-class Arian-5, the middle- class Soyuz rocket line and
Europe's light-class Vega. shipments from Russia. With its
participation in the Kourou project, Russia can claim an open niche on
the world market for commercial launches. Europe does not now have
middle-class rockets such as Russia is offering. For Russia, launching
Soyuz from Kourou will make it possible to triple the opportunities
for this rocket, which can put into geo-stationary orbit not 1.5
tonnes of payload, as launches from Baikonur in Kazakhstan provide,
but four tonnes, as this launch site is close to the equator.
Specialists calculate that this project will pay for itself in three
years, and in the coming ten years Russia could be getting stable
orders of 4-5 launches annually, capturing 40%-50% of the satellite
launch market. The first Soyuz launch will take place in 2006.
Expectations are that the actual construction work will begin this
September and will be done by the end of 2005. Experts estimate the
cost of an Arian-4 or -5 launch at around $80 million, while putting a
satellite into space aboard a Soyuz will cost roughly $30 million.
Russia figures to be making launch profits if at least three rockets
take off annually.
[CEIW]

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