MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2020) Launches of Russian Soyuz carrier rockets from the Kourou space center in French Guiana, postponed due to the center's closure over the coronavirus threat, may resume in mid-September, a source in the rocket and space industry told Sputnik.
In mid-March, French launch service operator Arianespace announced that preparations for launches of rockets, including Soyuzes, at Kourou were suspended due to the spread of the coronavirus.
The launch of a Soyuz with the UAE satellite Falcon Eye-2 was scheduled for April 14 from Kourou, and the blastoff with the French CSO-2 satellite for the second half of May. Both launches were earlier delayed for a month due to a problem with the Fregat upper stage.
"Provided that the space center resumes operation, by the end of the year, three launches of Soyuz rockets from Kourou may take place," the source said.
He said that preliminarily, the launch of the Falcon Eye-2 satellite is scheduled for September 15, and CSO-2 for October 15; the blastoff of two European Galileo navigation satellites was preliminarily scheduled for December 15.
