The 1,659th successful flight of a Soyuz launch vehicle took place on
Tuesday, May 29, 2001 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The launcher
lifted off on schedule at 09:55 p.m. Plesetsk local time (07:55 p.m. in
Paris) and the governmental spacecraft was placed on the target orbit.
This was the fifth Soyuz mission in 2001 and the 63rd successful launch in a
row associated with the Soyuz family of launchers. 9 of these 63 successes
were human flights.
Soyuz sustained launch rate confirms its position as one of the world’s
primary launch vehicles. The rate also demonstrates Samara Space Center’s
continuous production capacity, as well as the operational capability of
launch teams at Baikonur under the authority of the Russian Aviation and
Space Agency.
Starsem is the Soyuz Company, bringing together all key players involved in
the production, operation and international commercial marketing of the
world’s most versatile launch vehicle. Shareholders in Starsem are the
Russian Aviation and Space Agency (25%), the Samara Space Center (25%), EADS
(35%) and Arianespace (15%). The Starsem manifest for Soyuz missions
currently includes contracted launches for Space Systems/Loral, Alcatel
Space Industries, the European Space Agency and Eumetsat.
