Arianespace Places Two Satellites In Orbit Aboard Russian-Built Launch Vehicle

The first Soyuz launch vehicle to lift off from Arianespace's facility in French Guiana successfully placed Europe’s first two Galileo navigation satellites into orbit Friday. Lifting off from the ELS launch site in the Spaceport’s northwestern sector, Soyuz performed a 3-hour 49-minute flight to inject its two Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) spacecraft into a 23,222-km. circular medium-Earth orbit, inclined 54.7 degrees.

With Friday's nominal launch, Soyuz enters Arianespace’s growing launcher family – providing a medium-lift vehicle operating at the Spaceport alongside the heavy-lift Ariane 5, and to be joined in 2012 by the lightweight Vega at French Guiana.
 
Soyuz has served as the launch vehicle for manned and unmanned missions from its long-operating launch bases at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The maiden flight from its new “home” at the Spaceport marked Soyuz’ 1,777th launch, and began at 0730:26 local time in French Guiana – enabling the Galileo satellites’ injection into their proper orbital plane.
 
Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall noted that Soyuz already has become a commercial success, with 14 firm payload contracts booked for missions with this medium-lift vehicle from the Spaceport – all signed prior to today’s inaugural flight. He recognized the determined efforts of those who advanced the Soyuz at French Guiana project from its first studies in the late 1990s to a successful introduction today – stating that the project’s key players are true space visionaries. “Bravo Europe…bravo Russia…bravo cooperation,” Le Gall added during comments made at the Spaceport’s Jupiter mission control center.

Compared to other Soyuz launchers, the version used by Arianespace at the Spaceport incorporates a new digital control system that increases flight authority during the launcher’s atmospheric ascent, and enables the use of an enlarged ST-type payload fairing for greater flexibility in accommodating spacecraft passengers.
 
It also is equipped with the Fregat upper stage, which is designed as an autonomous orbital vehicle and has the capability to be restarted up to 20 times in flight – enabling complex payload deployment profiles to be performed. (Images courtesy Arianespace)

FMI: www.arianespace.com