MOSCOW. Nov 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Two Russian Soyuz-ST rockets have been delivered to French Guiana to be used as carrier vehicles for satellite launches from the Guiana Space Center, the main spaceport of the European Space Agency, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said.
The rockets were brought to the Guiana Space Center, which lies in Kourou commune, from St. Petersburg by the ship MN Colibri. The Colibri has also brought high-tech equipment for the launch pad, which has begun to be unloaded, the Roscosmos press service said.
Due to Kourou's equatorial location, Soyuz-ST rockets launched from the Guiana Space Center will be able to put in orbit heavier satellites than those that can go into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan or the Plesetsk spaceport in northern Russia.
The first Soyuz-ST mission is scheduled for the start of 2010.
The Soyuz-ST is a modernized version of the Soyuz.