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DJMN: Russian Rocket To Launch From French Guiana In 2010
ST. PETERSBURG (AFP)--A Russian rocket will next year for the first time blast off from a European launch pad in South America, officials said Saturday, as the first rockets headed for the site onboard a ship.
Two Russian Soyuz rockets, the mainstay of its space program, were later Saturday to depart the northern city of St. Petersburg by ship bound for the French overseas department of French Guiana.
Packed in containers, they will arrive 15 days later ahead of the first planned launches next year of Soyuz rockets from France's Kourou launch site in French Guiana.
"We are in line for the first launch in the second quarter of next year," the chief executive of French aerospace firm Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, told AFP.
Finally confirming the project is ready after a string of delays, he said that the first satellite to be launched by a Soyuz from French Guiana will be the Hylas telecommunications satellite of British firm Avanti Communications. The satellite will deliver broadband and corporate data network services across Europe, according to the company.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 07, 2009 05:40 ET (10:40 GMT)
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