Another launch of Russia’s Soyuz-ST carrier rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana will be carried out on August 21, the press service of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said on Friday.
The Soyuz rocket will place into orbit two Galileo satellites of the European Space Agency (ESA).
“The launch of the Soyuz-ST-B carrier rocket with the Fregat-MT upper stage and ESA’s two Galileo FOC satellites is scheduled for 16:31pm, Moscow time on August 31,” Roscosmos said.
The space agency added that the preparations were going on schedule. Autonomous tests of the rocket control system and final operations after the fuelling of the upper stage are planned for Friday, in particular. Roscosmos said that on Thursday that the third stage unit was mated with the carrier rocket package and the upper stage fuelling was carried out.
Russian specialists have also prepared the systems and units of the launch facility’s technological equipment set for receiving the carrier rocket.