Launches From Guiana Space Center Canceled Due To COVID19 To Resume In June- Space Company

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2020) Launches from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana, which was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, will resume in mid-June with the launch of the Vega rocket, France's Arianespace space transportation company said in a statement on Wednesday.

In mid-March, the company announced that launches from the Guiana Space Center, including those of Russian Soyuz vehicles, were suspended because of the pandemic.

"Following the measures presented by the French government on April 28 as part of the gradual resumption of activity planned from May 11, and the announcement of a restart of operational activities at the Guiana Space Center, Arianespace confirms its following launch objectives: Flight VV16/SSMS - The first "rideshare" Vega launch, carrying approximately 50 small satellites, in mid-June; Flight VA253 - A dual-payload Ariane 5 mission for two customers, Intelsat and B-SAT, at the end of July," the statement read.

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 and later due to the pandemic.

A source in the rocket and space industry told Sputnik earlier this month that the launch of the Falcon Eye-2 satellite was scheduled for September 15, and CSO-2 for October 15; the blastoff of two European Galileo navigation satellites was preliminarily scheduled for December 15.

Since 2011, there have been 23 Soyuz launches from the Guiana Space Center.