The 1686th flight of a Soyuz family launch vehicle (Molnia) was performed
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia at 10:05
a.m. Moscow time (8:05 a.m., in Paris).
Starsem and its Russian partners report that the governmental spacecraft was
accurately placed on the target orbit.
The launch was performed in the presence of Vladimir Putin, the President of
the Russian Federation.
This was the second Soyuz family mission in 2004. Last year, Soyuz was
launched 10 times with 100% success and performed its first GTO mission with
Israeli Amos 2 satellite. Ten Soyuz flights are planned for 2004.
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
Arianespace, EADS, the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and the Samara
Space Center.
The Starsem manifest for Soyuz missions currently includes contracted
launches for the European Space Agency and Eumetsat.
For further information,
please contact
Claire COULBEAUX
+ 33 (0) 1 69 87 01 10
communication@starsem.com
www.starsem.com
