A better GPS system - but only for Europe? Interesting to see Soyuz launched outside of the old USSR boundaries for the first time.
Quote:
PRESTIGE and a multibillion-dollar gamble in satellite navigation will be riding on a Soyuz rocket on Thursday.
The Soviet-era workhorse launches from Europe's space base in South America in the first time the rocket, which traces its lineage to Sputnik and Gagarin, has been deployed outside Russia's bases. Its payload will be the first two operational satellites in Galileo, Europe's 5.4 billion-euro rival to the US global positioning system.
Soyuz is the world's most successful rocket, with 1776 launches under its belt if the count includes forerunners dating back to 1957. There have been only 99 failures, yielding a success rate of 94.4 per cent. Until now, Soyuz has been launched from Plesetsk, in northern Russia, or from Baikonur, in Kazakhstan. Under a 2003 deal, Russia agreed to launch it from the European Space Agency's base in Kourou, French Guiana.
By launching its treasured child abroad, Russia gained precious income for its beleaguered space industry. In exchange, Arianespace, which markets the ESA's rockets for satellite launches, got a medium-range vehicle to go alongside the heavy Ariane 5, and a future lightweight rocket, the Vega.
"I have been pursuing this project for more than a decade. Now we really are in the home stretch," Arianespace boss Jean-Yves Le Gall said.
Ultimately, "Arianespace will be the only operator in the world that will be able to launch any satellite, from the smallest to the biggest, and place it any orbit," he said. A site has been specially built for Soyuz 12km from the Ariane launchpad.
As a symbol of this unprecedented co-operation, it incorporates a rock brought from the Baikonur pad whence Yuri Gagarin made the first human space flight in 1961. The infrastructure includes a 45m-high gantry to enable Soyuz launches. The site can be adapted for human spaceflight if need be, a noteworthy addition after the US shuttle's phaseout earlier this year.
The "Kourou" Soyuz has been given the designation Soyuz STK.
A spin-off of the Soyuz 2, it will use the Fregat upper stage and the ST nose cone, along with several minor modifications to make it compatible with ESA equipment. Thursday's payload is as prestigious as it is valuable.
The European Union says Galileo will be far more accurate than the GPS and offer better coverage in cities, where sat-nav signals can be masked by buildings. Above all, it means the world's biggest trade bloc will not have to depend on a foreign power for what is now an essential economic tool.
The first two Galileo satellites have been named Natalia and Thijs, after a nine-year-old Bulgarian girl and an 11-year-old Belgian boy, who won a drawing competition among European youngsters.
Liftoff is set for 7.34am (21.34 AEDT) on Thursday.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...#ixzz1azDfuVok
|