Soyuz rolls out for its maiden flight from French Guiana

Soyuz rolls out for its maiden flight from French Guiana


The Soyuz launcher for Arianespace’s VS01 mission nears completion of its rollout, approaching the Spaceport’s massive launch pad.

October 14, 2011 – Soyuz Flights VS01

Arianespace’s expansion of its commercial launcher family took a major step closer to reality with today’s rollout of the first medium-lift Soyuz to be operated from the Spaceport in French Guiana.
Emerging from the MIK launcher integration building at 7:00 a.m. local time this morning, the Soyuz was transferred on its transporter/erector rail car to the Spaceport’s ELS launch zone, where it was raised to the vertical position.

This clears the way for tonight’s integration of Soyuz’ “upper composite” – consisting of two Galileo navigation satellites, their protective payload fairing and the Fregat upper stage – to complete the launch vehicle.

The vertical integration of Soyuz payloads is the primary difference in the Spaceport's launch vehicle processing as compared to the long-operating Soyuz facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. This vertical procedure enables payloads to be installed as traditionally performed with Western launch systems – and is a change from the horizontal integration utilized at the Baikonur and Plesetsk Cosmodromes.

To accommodate the vertical integration, a purpose-built 52-meter-tall mobile gantry is used at the Spaceport – providing a protected working environment during the process.

Arianespace’s historic inaugural Soyuz mission from French Guiana is planned for next Thursday, October 20, with a liftoff at exactly 7:34:28 a.m. local time in French Guiana (10:34:28 UTC). At completion of the 3-hr. 49-min. flight, the two Galileo satellites will be released into a circular medium-Earth orbit at an altitude of 23,222 km., inclined 54.7 degrees.

Both Galileo satellites are installed on a payload dispenser that was developed for Arianespace, and which carries the two Galileo satellites in a side-by-side arrangement. A pyrotechnic separation system will be used to release them in opposite directions. Produced by EADS Astrium, the satellites have a launch mass of approximately 700 kg. each. The second pair of Galileo IOV spacecraft is to be orbited by Soyuz in 2012.

These satellites will form the operational nucleus of Europe’s full 30-satellite Galileo navigation constellation. Developed in a collaboration of the European Space Agency and European Union, Galileo is designed to provide highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning services, and will be interoperable with the U.S. Global Positioning System and Russia’s Glonass network.

The October 20 maiden flight of Soyuz from French Guiana is designated VS01 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering sequence. In parallel, the VS02 launch campaign is now underway for Soyuz’ second mission from the Spaceport, targeted in mid-December with the French CNES space agency’s Pleiades optical Earth observation satellite and accompanied by five supplemental payloads.

Soyuz joins Arianespace’s heavy-lift Ariane 5 at the Spaceport, and will be complemented by the lightweight Vega vehicle beginning in 2012 – creating a complete launcher family in side-by-side service at one of the world’s most modern launch facilities.

http://www.arianespace.com/news-mission-update/2011/851.asp