MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th March, 2020) The launch of a Russian Soyuz-ST carrier rocket with a French optical-electronic reconnaissance satellite CSO-2 from the Kourou space center in French Guiana has been postponed until the end of April-May due to a problem with the Frigate upper stage, the US spaceflightnow.com outlet said on Saturday.
In February, a Sputnik source in space and rocket industry announced that the launch of CSO-2 was scheduled for April 10.
The launch of the UAE optical-electronic spy satellite Falcon Eye 2 that was scheduled for March 6 from the Kourou space center has also been postponed until April. A Sputnik source in the Russian space industry said on Friday that the launch had been postponed due to the need to replace a Frigate booster on the rocket.
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.
Since 2011, there have been 23 Soyuz launches from the Guiana Space Center.
