MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Specialists of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos who stayed at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana to complete necessary works have returned to Moscow, the Center for the Operation of the Ground-Based Space Infrastructure said on Saturday.
"The plane with the last group of Russian specialists has landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport," the center said, adding that these people would be placed under mandatory 14-day quarantine. "Currently, all of them are feeling well," the center said.
Eight specialists of the Center and its branches earlier completed works to bring the fuel servicing equipment at the fueling station to its initial state and neutralize it.
Now all the works at the Kourou cosmodrome have been suspended over the coronavirus pandemic. As the Guiana Space Center reported earlier, these measures are called upon to protect the health of the staff and the local population and also to ensure safety required for preparing for planned space launches.
Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel said in late April that the company was getting prepared to resume preparations for two launches from the Kourou spaceport with the use of Vega and Arinae 5 carrier rockets.
In late March, about 25 Roscosmos specialists flew home from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana after its operation was suspended amid the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, 21 other specialists remained at the spaceport because the rocket’s upper stage could not be left in its fueled state. On April 25, nine employees of the Lavochkin Research and Production Association returned to Russia. They are complying with a two-week quarantine.