Overview | Preparation area | Launch zone | Entry into service

The Spaceport

Soyuz launch site facts

• The launch site is located 12 kilometers northwest from the Ariane 5 launch complex
  
• The launch vehicle’s assembly building is 92 meters long, 41 meters wide, and 22 meters tall
  
• Soyuz’s launch site is configured after the Russian Baikonur and Plesetsk Cosmodromes but with a new mobile launch service tower
  
• Assembly of Soyuz launchers is performed horizontally inside the launcher integration building, with payload integration performed vertically on the launch pad
  

Soyuz launch site > Entry into service

Soyuz' service startup at the Spaceport will introduce an updated version of this medium-lift workhorse launcher in side-by-side operations with Arianespace's proven heavy-lift Ariane 5 and new lightweight Vega.

The upgraded Soyuz – with its modernized avionics, improved-performance third stage, and enlarged payload fairing – has been validated in multiple successful launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia.

Soyuz flights from the Spaceport will be managed by Arianespace's seasoned mission team members – many of whom already have direct Soyuz experience through commercial launches performed from Baikonur Cosmodrome by the company's Starsem affiliate. In addition, Spaceport operations will be supported by the same Russian companies that have long overseen both manned and unmanned Soyuz missions.

Production of the initial four Soyuz launchers was ordered by Arianespace in 2007 from Russian industry, ensuring the initial vehicles will be available as planned.  This was followed by a contract signed in September 2008 for another 10 Soyuz vehicles, which will be launched on commercial missions from the Spaceport or Baikonur Cosmodrome beginning in 2010.