The US might have been the hare, getting to the moon first in 1969, but fast forward to 2011 and it seems like the Soviet tortoise has won the space race in the long run by being slow but sure.

 

For the first time, a Russian Soyuz rocket is being launched by Arianespace from its equatorial base in French Guiana. The launch is significant because it will carry a pair of Galileo navigation satellites as part of a first step to free Europe from reliance on the US GPS system.

 

Arianespace has a launch capacity of up to seven Ariane 5 rockets a year, or up to 14 typical communication satellites as most launches have a double payload. Adding the Soyuz base means up to an additional four launches a year and with the Soyuz now being half the capacity of the Ariane 5, adds significant flexibility to its operations.

 

Traditionally the Soyuz is launched from its home base in Baikonur, in Kazakhstan. The problem is that at 46 degrees north, a lot of extra energy is needed to put a satellite into an equatorial geostationary orbit. Or, put another way, the Soyuz’s payload for insertion into a geostationary orbit from Baikonur was just short of two tons. Launch the same rocket from French Guiana and it can now take a typical three ton communications satellite up.

 

The Sinnamary launch site is a copy of the one in Baikonur, but with one major difference.

 

Whereas the original was assembled lying down and the payload was attached with the rocket horizontal, the new site has a hangar where the satellite can be attached with the rocket erect and allows for practically any satellite that can be launched on an Ariane 5 to be launched on a Soyuz without redesign.

 

The market is still very much one of broadcast communication satellites. The European and North American markets are much more integrated with a handful of satellites covering large regions, but in Asia there still is a tendency for each country to have, and use, its own satellite.