Arianespace Chief Executive Officer Stephane Israel announced on Wednesday that two contracts with the French space agency CNE to launch two small spacecrafts in 2019, including the first French nanosatellite on the Soyuz carrier rocket, had been signed.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2019) Arianespace Chief Executive Officer Stephane Israel announced on Wednesday that two contracts with the French space agency CNE to launch two small spacecrafts in 2019, including the first French nanosatellite on the Soyuz carrier rocket, had been signed."I'm excited to announce the signature of two new launch contracts with the French @CNES space agency. Under terms of these agreements, #Arianespace will orbit the #EyeSat triple CubeSat, plus the first French-developed nanosatellite (called ANGELS), in 2019 using #Soyuz [carrier rocket]," Israel said on Twitter.
Arianespace further added that the company was "planning up to three Soyuz missions in 2019." According to the company, the Soyuz rockets will orbit United Kingdom's OneWeb and O3b satellites, as well as EU space telescope CHEOPS.
In December, a source from the Russian space industry told Sputnik that four Soyuz launches from the Kourou space center were planned for 2019. According to the source, six OneWeb satellites will be launched in February, followed by launch of four O3b satellite constellations in April, the Italian satellite CSG-1 and EU space telescope CHEOPS in October, and 34 OneWeb satellites in November.
On December 19, the Soyuz-ST carrier rocket with the French spy satellite CSO-1 was launched from the Kourou space center in French Guiana. It was the first of three satellites that will form the Optical Space Component for the French government and be launched with the Soyuz over the next few years
In June 2015, Russian space agency Roscosmos signed contracts with France's Arianespace and the United Kingdom's OneWeb to carry out a total of 21 commercial launches from Kourou, as well as Russia's Baikonur and Vostochny cosmodromes to bring 672 satellites to space with the help of Soyuz rockets.
