The 1670th flight of a Soyuz launch vehicle took place successfully on
Wednesday, June 26, 2002 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The
launcher lifted off on schedule at 11:36 a.m. Baikonur local time (7:36
a.m., in Paris), and the Progress spacecraft was accurately placed on the
target orbit.

This was the 5th Soyuz mission in 2002 and the 74th successful launch in a
row associated with the Soyuz family of launch vehicles. 11 of these 74
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

www.starsem.com