Roscosmos suspends Soyuz joint launch operations from Kourou and recalls personnel from Europe’s spaceport.
Russia is suspending cooperation with Arianespace on the launch of Soyuz rockets from Europe’s Guiana Space Center and pulling its personnel from the South American spaceport over European Union (EU) sanctions imposed on the nation for the nation’s invasion of Ukraine. Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said.
“There are 87 Russian citizens in French Guiana. We are talking about employees of NPO Lavochkin, who prepared the Fregat-MT upper stage, as well as employees of the Progress RCC (manufacturer of the Soyuz rockets) and TsENKI. The issue of the departure of Russian employees is being worked out.”
⚡ «В ответ на санкции Евросоюза в отношении наших предприятий Роскосмос приостанавливает сотрудничество с европейскими партнерами по организации космических запусков с космодрома Куру и отзывает свой персонал, включая сводный стартовый расчёт, из Французской Гвианы», — @Rogozin. pic.twitter.com/KLm2UQsIEz
— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) February 26, 2022
The launch of Soyuz rockets from French Guiana is a joint program of Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) program that has provided Arianespace with a medium-lift launcher to complement the larger Ariane 5 booster and the smaller Vega rocket.
A Soyuz rocket was scheduled to launch a pair of European Galileo navigation satellites on April 5. There have been 27 Soyuz launches from French Guiana since October 2011.