Little did President Charles de Gaulle imagine how far Europe's cooperation with Russia would eventually stretch when he coined the phrase "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Oural".
Some 50 years later, this cooperation now extends across the Atlantic to French Guiana.

On October 20 the first Soyuz rocket to liftoff from the European Spaceport will be a historic event. The legendary Russian launcher will be lofting the first pair of Galileo satellites for Europe's satellite navigation system called Galileo.

This A & B-Roll explains the origins and reasons of the Soyuz in French Guiana and includes interviews with:

- ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain
- Yannick D'Escatha, President of the French Space Agency CNES
- Vladimir Popovkin, Head of the Russian Space Agency ROSCOSMOS

The B-Roll also includes interviews with:

- Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall

- François Barreau, Arianespace Head of Soyuz Operations

- Victor Nikolaev, Chief Operating Officer at Starsem

Interviews are in English, French and Russian

More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMS693UNSG_index_0.html

The MPEG-2 files are on the ESA ftp server in the folder entitled : ftp://esa.contentcoders.com/mpeg2/Soyuz-in-FrGuiana-07102011/