MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said six satellites will be put to orbit using the Russian rocket Soyuz from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana in the second half of 2013.
"Another six satellites will be put in a near-earth orbit in the second half of this year," Putin told a press conference following his negotiations with his French counterpart Francois Hollande.
"Our joint program Soyuz in the Guiana Space Center draws a lot of interest from consumers of space services, satellite operators," Putin said.
The contract between Roscosmos and the French enterprise Arianespace on the Soyuz project in the Guiana Space Center was signed in 2005. At least 50 launches are expected to be conducted from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana using Russian Soyuz-ST rocket carriers. No manned launches are expected at the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana in the next 15 years. The total cost of the program is 344 million euro, of which 121 million euro is borne by Russia.
Four Soyuz-ST rockets were launched from the Kourou Cosmodrome in 2011-2012.
According to the Central Construction Bureau Progress, a rocket carrier Soyuz-ST-A takes cargo to the geostationary transfer orbit whose payload mass reaches 2760 kilos (Soyuz-ST-B - up to 3,150 kilos); to the geostationary orbit - up to 1,190 kilos (Soyuz-ST-B - up to 1,480 kilos); to a 820 kilometer-high solar synchronous orbit - up to 4,340 kilos (Soyuz-ST-B - up to 4,910 kilos).