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New Soyuz model successfully launched

9 November 2004

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The inaugural launch of the Soyuz 2-1a took place successfully on Monday 8 November 2004 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. This launch marks a major step forward in the Soyuz evolution programme as this modernised version of the launcher implements a digital control system providing additional mission flexibility and enabling control of the launch vehicle with a larger fairing.
The next step will be the introduction of the Soyuz 2-1b, after being launched from Baikonur in 2006, the Sopyuz 2-1b will make its inaugural launch from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana in 2007.

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Artist view of a Soyuz/ST lifting off from the launch zone of the Soyuz Launch Complex (ELS), of the Guiana Space Centre (CSG), Europe's spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana.
Soyuz launchers will be processed horizontally and erected on the pad some 18 hours before liftoff.
Approved by ESA's council in February 2004, the ELS is under construction at the Malmanoury site, some 6 km West of the Ariane Launch Complexes (ELAs) and is planned to be operational for launches of Russian-built Soyuz launchers in 2006.
The Soyuz launcher, an offspring of the R-7 ballistic missile, is the most used and the most reliable launcher in the world, with some 1700 launches of satellites or manned flights since the first Sputnik was put into orbit in 1957 and since the first man, Yuri Gagarin, was sent into space in 1961.
Since 1996, the European-Russian company, Starsem, has been marketing the Soyuz launcher, which is routinely launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
From Kourou, Soyuz launchers will be able to launch up to 2.5 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), thus complementing the launcher family formed by Ariane 5, which provides heavy lift capacity of up to 10 tonnes to GTO, and Vega, for light launches to low Earth orbits.

Credits: ESA-D. DUCROS