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Soyuz rocket launch from Kourou spaceport scheduled for April 14

It was initially planned for March 6

Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana AP Photo/Henri Griffit

Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana

© AP Photo/Henri Griffit

MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. The launch of the UAE’s Falcon Eye 2 satellite atop a Soyuz-ST carrier rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, which had initially been scheduled for March 6 but was delayed, will be carried out on April 14, a source in the space industry told TASS.

"The launch of the Soyuz-ST carrier rocket from the Kourou spaceport is scheduled for April 14," the source said.

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Launch of Soyuz rocket from Kourou spaceport delayed over problem in booster — source

The lift-off of the Soyuz-ST carrier rocket with the Falcon Eye 2 optical observation satellite was due to take place at 4:33 a.m. Moscow Time on March 6. Later a source in the space industry told TASS that the launch had been delayed over problems with the Fregat booster.

Despite Russia’s readiness to carry out the launch, the customer and Arianespace company made a decision to replace the booster and postpone the blast-off preliminarily until early April.

The source noted that the booster would be replaced with another Fregat.

Earlier, a source told TASS that Russian specialists were working at the space center in French Guiana where anti-coronavirus measures were introduced after several cases had been detected in a community near Kourou. All contacts with foreign personnel will be carried out via telecommunications technologies.

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