MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Four Russian Soyuz-ST rockets will blast off from the European Kourou Space Center in South America this year, head of the European Space Agency (ESA) office in Russia Rene Pischel told reporters on Friday.
There is a contract on five launches of Galileo-FOC (full operation capability) satellites with Russia's Soyuz-ST rockets, i.e. the positioning of ten satellites in orbit. The first two launches will be done in 2014, and another launch has been delayed since last year, he said.
In addition, a Soyuz-ST rocket will propel the European research satellite Sentinel-1A into space.
ILS, a Proton launch services operator on the global market, also proposed to launch Galileo satellites, he said.
Another cluster of Galileo satellites will be launched with a European rocket Ariane within the next few years.