ESA Will Launch First Soyuz on October 20

In anticipation of a planned October 20 launch date, engineering crews at the Kourou Spaceport, in French Guiana, South America, are working hard on preparing a well-known rocket for departure. The mission is scheduled to put the first elements of the Galileo satellite navigation system in Earth's orbit.

The Kourou Spaceport is the main launch base the European Space Agency (ESA) operates. The organization is the primary developer of the Galileo network, whose first satellites will be launched beginning this year. More will follow next year.

With only a month to go before the momentous occasion, engineers and mission controllers at Kourou are investigating the systems aboard the Russian-built Soyuz delivery system, which ESA bought from the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos).

Considering the large numbers of Galileo satellites that need to be built, as well as the type of orbits the Kourou Spaceport has access to, the European agency decided to build an entire Soyuz launch facility at its spaceport. This turned out to be cheaper than launching rockets from Russian territory.

Over the past few years, European and Russian experts worked alongside in South America, erecting the typical hangar and launch pad that accommodate one of the most successful rockets ever developed.

After so much intense preparation, both the launch pad and the first Soyuz rocket are ready to go. The final assembly process for the Soyuz ST-B vehicle began on September 12. The delivery system consists of a 4-segment first stage, a core second stage and a third component on top.

The latter is the upgraded, re-ignitable Fregat-MT upper stage, which will feature an additional 900 kilograms (1984 pounds) of propellant. The extra fuel is needed because this stage will carry two satellites rather than the traditional one.

“Soyuz will be rolled out horizontally to the launch pad on […] October [14] and raised into its vertical launch position. A new 45 m-tall mobile gantry was built specifically for Soyuz operations in French Guiana,” an ESA press release explains.

“It protects the satellites and the launcher from the humid tropical environment and provides access to the Soyuz at various levels for checkout activities. The upper composite, comprising the Fregat upper stage, payload and fairing, is then hoisted on top of Soyuz,” the statement adds.

ESA is building Galileo in response to the United States' refusal to share high-quality location data from its mostly-military Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network. Russia and China are building global satnav networks as well.