Speaking to Hyperbola at the launch of the UK Space Agency today European Space Agency director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain said that a decision would be made in April about when the first Samara Space Center Soyuz 2-1a rocket flight from Sinnamary in French Guiana will take place
The decision is expected in April Dordain says because the Soyuz launch pad gantry should be completed by then. Its design, construction and testing in Russia and then delivery to Sinnamary and subsequent reconstruction has been blamed for part of the history of delays that have beset the Soyuz in French Guiana programme
This July had been touted as the maiden flight month after no date had been set in 2009 following delays from 2007 to 2008 and then to last year. The latest third quarter delay could mean slippage for the launch into the fourth quarter when ESA was hoping to be ready to launch the 2-1b version of the Soyuz rocket. This uses different fuel for its upper stage and is needed to launch the first Galileo satellites
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April decision for first French Guiana Soyuz flight after July slip
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on March 23, 2010 7:35 PM | Reply
What this doesn't say is that the entire delay is due to ESA adding this gantry as an extra feature at a late stage in the construction process.
It is not Russia's fault but everyone will think so.
Similar crap took place in the A400 project forcing the first aircraft to sit on the ground for a year while new software was written, orders of EU bureaucrats.
Oh, how we miss the Siberian Salt Mines!