The 1661st flight of a Soyuz launch vehicle took place successfully on
Tuesday, August 21, 2001 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The
launcher lifted off on schedule at 3:24 p.m. Baikonur local time (11:24 a.m.
in Paris), and the Progress spacecraft was accurately placed on the target
orbit.
This was the 7th Soyuz mission in 2001 and the 65th successful launch in a
row associated with the Soyuz family of launchers. 9 of these 65 successes
were human flights.
Soyuz sustained launch rate confirms its position as one of the world’s
primary launch vehicles. This 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 EADS
(35%), the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (25%), the Samara Space Center
(25%) 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.
For further information,
please contact
Claire COULBEAUX
+ 33 (0) 1 56 80 06 60
communication@starsem.com
