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Arianespace confirms Soyuz launch from Kourou on December 28

According to the company’s statement, it will be its tenth and last launch in 2020

Kourou launch facilities Sergei Savostyanov//TASS

Kourou launch facilities

© Sergei Savostyanov//TASS

PARIS, December 22. /TASS/. French launch services provider Arianespace confirmed on Tuesday that the launch of a Soyuz carrier rocket with a French defense satellite CSO-2will take place on December 28 from the Kourou space center in French Guiana .

According to the company’s statement, it will be its tenth and last launch in 2020.

"Arianespace will send the CSO-2 Earth observation satellite, intended for defense and security applications, into Sun-synchronous orbit," the statement reads.

According to the launch schedule, published by Arianespace, the blastoff will take place at 19:42 Moscow time.

Meanwhile, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin said the rocket will be rolled out to the launch pad on Wednesday.

"At the launch center in Guiana, the commission decided to roll out the Soyuz carrier rocket to the launch pad on December 23," Rogozin wrote in a Twitter post.

CSO-2 is the second satellite of the Optical Space Component program, a constellation of three satellites dedicated to Earth observation for defense and security purposes. They are being placed into polar orbits at different altitudes, and will carry out two different missions: reconnaissance for CSO-1 and CSO-3; and identification for CSO-2. The SCO-1 satellite was launched aboard the Soyuz-ST-A carrier rocket from Kourou in December 2018.

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