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Roscosmos says it planned no major launch campaigns with foreign partners

Long before the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the United States prohibited the use of Russian rockets to launch spacecraft with US-made elements starting from January 1, 2023, corporation spokesperson Dmitry Strugovets said

MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. Russian state-run space corporation Roscosmos did not expect to sign contracts for major launch campaigns, as was the case with UK OneWeb project, corporation spokesperson Dmitry Strugovets has said.

"No major launch campaigns, similar to the OneWeb contract, have been envisaged," Strugovets wrote in his Telegram channel, commenting on withdrawal from the Kourou space launch facility.

In his words, long before the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the United States prohibited the use of Russian rockets to launch spacecraft with US-made elements starting from January 1, 2023.

"Sanctions targeting Russian rockets will come into force anyway, and Russia will be squeezed out of the launch services market by the end of the year," he added.

In his words, the planned Soyuz launches from the Kourou space launch facility in French Guiana were additional, and were ordered by Europe amid troubles surrounding its Vega rocket trials, high launch costs of the Ariane-5 rocket and delays in the Ariane-6 project.

"In other words, those contracts for Soyuz rockets were not initially planned. Europe wanted to stop using Soyuz rockets several years ago, and continued to cooperate only because of troubles with its own carriers," he said.

Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin said earlier the Russian state space corporation suspended its cooperation with European partners on space launches from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou in response to the EU sanctions and withdrew its technical staff.