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Soyuz October 25, 2012

Pléiades 1B joins its launcher at the Spaceport for Arianespace’s Soyuz mission in November

The basic three-stage Soyuz for Arianespace Flight VS04 is shown in the Spaceport’s MIK assembly building following its integration.

Activities for Arianespace’s fourth medium-lift Soyuz flight from the Spaceport is fully underway as the Pléiades 1B payload has now arrived in French Guiana – joining the mission’s launcher, which is well advanced in its preparations.

The dual-use, very-high-resolution satellite was delivered this week by a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft to Félix Eboué Airport near the capital city of Cayenne, where it was unloaded for transfer by road to the Spaceport.

Pléiades 1B is unloaded from a Boeing 747 following the cargo jetliner’s arrival at Félix Eboué Airport near Cayenne, the capital city of French Guiana.

Pléiades 1B is unloaded from a Boeing 747 following the cargo jetliner’s arrival at Félix Eboué Airport near Cayenne, the capital city of French Guiana.

Pléiades 1B will be orbited on a late-night November 30 flight from the ELS launch complex at the Spaceport, where the basic three-stage Soyuz vehicle already has been built up inside the MIK assembly building.  Elsewhere at the Spaceport, the launcher’s Fregat upper stage is now undergoing its fueling process in the S3B processing building.

The November flight – designated VS04 in Arianespace’s mission numbering system – will mark the fourth Soyuz liftoff from French Guiana since this medium-lift vehicle’s service entry in October 2011.

Its Pléiades 1B payload is designed to provide optical observation coverage with 50-centimeter resolution for the French and Spanish defense ministries, civil institutions, and private users.  Operating from a 695-km. quasi-polar heliosynchronous orbit, it will accompany the twin Pléiades 1A spacecraft launched last December on Arianespace’s VS02 Soyuz mission from the Spaceport.

The Astrium division of EADS built both Pléiades satellites for the French CNES space agency, which is prime contractor and system architect.  They are based on smaller, cheaper, more agile platforms than their predecessors – the highly-successful Spot satellite series, which was launched on Ariane family launchers by Arianespace beginning in 1986.

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Soyuz October 12, 2012

Arianespace's fourth Spaceport mission with Soyuz: the Pléiades 1B satellite is readied for fueling

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