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Press release of October 21, 2011

21 october 2011

October 21 of this year, 14h 30min 26s (msc time) Soyuz-ST-B Launch Vehicle with Fregat Upper Stage was successfully launched from Guiana Space Center. The launcher placed into orbit two European navigation satellites Galileo-IOV.
Soyuz-ST-B was developed and manufactured by TsSKB-Progress SRP SRC within the frames of Soyuz in Guiana Space Center Program. Soyuz-ST-B is a derivative of Soyuz-2-1b tailored to the requirements of Guiana Space Center as regards safety, TM-system and environmental conditions.
Reference:
TsSKB-Progress plays the key role in the Soyuz in GSC Project: the enterprise is responsible for the launch vehicle, launch facility, general supervision and coordination of Russian subcontractors involved in the launch mission.

Soyuz-ST was updated to meet the requirements of the European partners as regards safety, telemetry system and environmental conditions.

It is foreseen to perform minimum 50 launches of Soyuz-ST type carriers within the next 15 years from Guiana Space Center. Significantly increased competitiveness of the EU and Russian launch vehicles owing to making up a mutually compliment line of carriers including French Arian-5 and Russian Soyuz-ST and Soyuz-2 is in sight.