Launch site for Russian Soyuz rockets changed

On Wednesday, in an article about the European Space Agency director Jean-Jacques Dordain, Le Soir newspaper reported that Soyuz rocket-carriers will not be launched from the Kourou space center in French Guiana. Instead, they will be launched from a separate launch pad near the township of Sinnamary.

In Brussels on Tuesday, Dordain presented the "White Book," which contains a promising program for the development of the European space industry.

Le Soir reported that the decision to launch Russian rockets from a separate pad is explained by "the plans for the development of the local infrastructure and by economic and strategic considerations." Earlier, the Russian Aviation and Space Agency told RIA Novosti that Russian trains and European ferries would bring modern Soyuz-ST rockets to the Kourou space center.

French kerosene and oxygen will fuel the first launch of the modern Soyuz-ST with a digital control system. The launch has been planned for the end of 2006 to the beginning of 2007.