MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Europe’s Arianespace company has ordered from Russia six more Soyuz-ST carrier rockets for launches from the Kourou space center in French Guiana in the next four years, Alexander Kirilin, CEO of the Progress Rocket and Space Center in the Volga city of Samara, said on Tuesday.
"As of today a total of 10 Soyuz-ST carrier rockets, manufactured at our enterprise, were launched from French Guiana," Kirilin told TASS.
Last April the Russian enterprise entered some $400 million contract with the European company on the production and supply of seven Soyuz-ST carrier rockets for the launches from the Kourou center up to 2019.
"According to contracts, a total of 13 carrier rockets [seven under last year’s contract and six more under a new one] were ordered to provide for launching campaigns up to 2019," Kirilin said.
The very first contract on the use of Soyuz-ST carrier rockets from the Kourou space center was signed in 2015 and stipulated a plan of at least 50 launches.
Soyuz-ST is a modification of the Russian three-stage Soyuz-2 spacecraft with a Fregat-MT booster and an ST cone adapted for launches from Kourou.