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Satnews Daily
November 24, 2009
Arianespace Marks A First — Twice — For Russia
Arianespace has marked a historic milestone with the arrival of its first two Soyuz launchers in French Guiana, which will be used to inaugurate service with this medium-lift workhorse vehicle next year from the
Spaceport.
Containers with the stages for Arianespace’s first two Soyuz launchers are rolled out from the MN Colibri’s interior cargo compartment.
The Soyuz 2-1a launchers were carried aboard the MN Colibri roll-on/roll-off
transport ship, which docked on schedule yesterday morning (November 23) at
Pariacabo port near Kourou after completing the transatlantic crossing from
St. Petersburg, Russia.
Unloading operations at Pariacabo started with refined kerosene propellant
for the launcher's strap-on boosters and its Block A and Block I stages,
along with UDMH, N2O4 and hydrazine for its Fregat upper stage. The
activity began yesterday from the ship's upper deck, and continued through
this morning.
Also brought ashore yesterday from the MN Colibri's upper deck was a
functional model of the Fregat, which will be used for fueling tests in
French Guiana.
This was followed by today's rollout of containers with the Soyuz launchers'
four first-stage strap-on boosters, their Block A core stages and Block I
third stages, Fregat upper stages, as well as the Soyuz ST-type payload
fairings. The transfer of these elements began in road convoys to the
Spaceport today, and will be completed tomorrow.
One of the two Fregat upper stages brought to French Guiana by the MN Colibri is transported from Pariacabo port to the Spaceport.
Claude Bessemoulin, Arianespace's head of logistics, said the unloading operations went very well, and followed the procedures employed for years in transporting Ariane launchers from Europe to French Guiana - a process that utilizes the MN Colibri and its sister ship, the MN Toucan.
Soyuz is one of the world's most utilized launchers, having been operated in
1,750 missions from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and Russia's northern
launch site at Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Its introduction at French Guiana will
bring this venerable medium-life vehicle into Arianespace's growing launcher
family, joining its heavy-lift Ariane 5 now operational at the Spaceport,
and subsequently the lightweight Vega.
