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The official ceremony marking ESA’s handover of the Soyuz launch site to Arianespace took place today at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, after the site was declared ready for the first flight and the completion of a simulated launch campaign. The French space agency, CNES, as prime contractor for the building work, along with its European and Russian partners, has spent recent months qualifying the site.
In March, the ‘acceptance review’ declared that it was ready for its first rocket and at the same time CNES handed over the facilities to ESA. The last step was ESA’s hand-over to Arianespace on 31 March.
Arianespace became responsible for the Soyuz launch site and began a simulated launch campaign on 29 April that ended on 5 May.
This dry run ensured that the Soyuz and the new facilities work together perfectly, while allowing the teams to train under realistic launch conditions. It validated all the procedures during the five-day final phase before a launch.
The ceremony opened with speeches by Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, Yannick d’Escatha, President of CNES, and Vladimir Popovkin, Head of Roscosmos. They were followed by Mr Dordain handing over the site’s ‘keys’ to Mr Le Gall.
