MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax-AVN) - The funding for the project of deploying infrastructure to launch Soyuz-ST space vehicles from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana has been increased be 8.5 million euros, deputy director of the Russian Federal Space Agency Viktor Remishevsky told a news conference at the Interfax main office in Moscow.
"The ESA has resolved to allocate additional 8.5 million euros for the construction of the mobile maintenance turret in Guiana under a separate contract," Remishevsky said.
The Russian side has already received 121 million euros from the ESA for the deployment of the infrastructure and equipment, and modernization of the Soyuz-2.1a space vehicle.
"Soyuz-ST to be launched from Kourou is an adjusted Soyuz-2.1.a being built by Russian companies at their own expenses," he said.
According to him, the development and construction of the mobile maintenance turret for Russian launch vehicles is vested in an Italian firm, which means that the total allocations for the Russian segment of the program reached about 130 million euros.
Remishevsky added that the mobile maintenance turret was included as an article of the project in view of the climate in French Guiana which is totally different from that in Plesetsk and Baikonur. "The launch facilities are quite the same as those normally used to launch Soyuz rockets, with the only distinction being the maintenance turret that will protect equipment and technicians from tropical showers," he emphasized.