Soyuz in Guiana

This is the mythical rocket par excellence, the one that launched Sputnik, the first satellite and Gagarin, the first man in space. The CSG, Guiana Space Centre, is now one of its launch bases: a historic achievement.

ELS stands for “Ensemble de Lancement Soyouz” (Soyuz Launch Facility), a sort of “mini-Baikonur” set up in the tropical forest. This infrastructure enables the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s spaceport, to receive the Soyuz rocket which complements the launch services provided by the Ariane 5. The ELS spans a total surface area of 120 hectares, it required 3,500 m3 of concrete and 1 million m3 of earthworks! Credit: ESA/Stéphane Corvaja

On the face of it, the fact that a Soyuz rocket is to blast off to orbit from the CSG, Guiana Space Centre, would not appear to merit such agitation. When all is said and done, haven’t the different versions of this rocket that dates from the beginning of the conquest of space accumulated more than 1,770 launches (an absolute record), hasn’t the CSG already seen its own fair share of blast offs into space and shouldn’t our era marked by international trade agreements play down the historic aspect that a Russian rocket lifting off from European soil constitutes? And after all, aren’t the Americans themselves using the Russian RD-180 engine on one of their most powerful Atlas V rockets?

Well and truly historic!
And yet, without any pomposity, the event is well and truly historic. It is one thing to see an engine exported to a former enemy from the Cold War (case of the aforementioned Atlas V) but it is quite another to fire an entire launch vehicle outside of its home territory. Here, we are touching on an area that goes much further than technology or even astronautics, and heading straight to that of History (with a capital H) and the symbolism that States attach to their prestige on the global scene. Moreover, during a discussion evening organised on 21 September 2011 by the Cité de l’Espace in Toulouse, France, Jean-Marc Astorg, Deputy Director of the launch vehicles directorate for the CNES (the French Space Agency) actually reiterated the issue that we are talking about in these terms: “les lanceurs sont des objets de souveraineté” (launch vehicles are objects of sovereignty). In other words, launch vehicles (or rockets) give a State its independence as regards access to space so that it does not have to depend on the good (or bad) will of another country when it comes to sending its own satellites into orbit.
But before going any further, why not take a look at this video produced by the CNES which summarises in French the arrival of the Soyuz in Guiana.




Legacy of the Franco-Russian co-operation agreement
There is no doubt that the arrival of the Soyuz in French Guiana did not come about in the twinkling of an eye. As Yannick d’Escatha, President of the CNES, highlighted in the above video, although the project is being carried out under the banner of the ESA, European Space Agency, it is also “le fruit de 45 ans de coopération spatiale entre la France et la Russie” (the fruit of 45 years of space co-operation agreements between France and Russia). Indeed, the two countries set up a productive scientific collaboration agreement in the space field, even during the time of the Soviet Union. We would reiterate that the first Frenchman in space, Jean-Loup Chrétien, blasted off in 1982 to the Soviet station Saliout 7 aboard a Soyuz spaceship... atop a Soyuz rocket (the spaceship and the rocket have the same name, the rocket was previously dubbed R-7 or Semiorka).
After the fall of the Soviet Union and its economic system, the Russian space industry found itself with a blatant lack of finance whilst possessing an obvious know-how. A new form of co-operation agreement, no longer just scientific, but also commercial, came into being in order to sell satellite launch services using the Soyuz rocket. Arianespace (main shareholders: the CNES and manufacturers EADS and Safran), the company tasked with commercialising the European Ariane family rockets, was then to include the legendary Russian rocket in its “catalogue”. The Russo-European company Starsem was founded in 1996 for this purpose. It unites EADS, Arianespace, the Russian Space Agency and TsSKB-Progress (or Samara Space Centre). The latter, situated 860 km south-east of Moscow, manufactures the Soyuz rocket, masterpiece of its head designer, engineer Sergei Korolev (1907-1966). And when we talk about masterpiece: just think that this rocket sent the first satellite into orbit (Sputnik in 1957), the first living being into orbit (Laïka the dog that same year), the first man (Yuri Gagarin in 1961) and the first woman (Valentina Tereshkova in 1963) into space, etc.

The Samara Centre (TsSK Progress) is where the different versions of the Soyuz rocket are manufactured, including the one used for human space flights to the International Space Centre and Guiana’s Soyuz 2. Credit: ESA/Stéphane Corvaja

It is true that this venerable rocket has evolved, but Jean-Marc Astorg of the CNES clearly highlighted the fact that it has the “même architecture globale” (same overall architecture). However, launches of the Soyuz sold by Starsem/Arianespace initially blasted off from Baikonur, the famous cosmodrome that was once Soviet and that is now situated in Kazakhstan (Russia rents the land containing the vast space complex from Kazakh State).

Off to Guiana
The idea of launching Soyuz from Guiana came about gradually through negotiation and reflection concerning the launch market. It was an idea that did not meet with unanimous support at the beginning as it was feared that Soyuz could steal the market out from under Ariane. But the logic of the synergy finally won the day and the highest authorities of the States in question gave their approval. Even though the Russian rocket is to gain in performance by blasting off from Guiana by being closer to the equator with the possibility of sending 3 tonnes into geostationary transfer orbit (an orbit from which satellites can reach the geostationary position much sought-after for telecommunications, a highly profitable sector), it is still less than the 10 tonnes of the most powerful of the Ariane 5. Likewise, the future small European launch vehicle Vega is targeting small satellites in low orbit. The following division was then made official for the Guiana Space Centre: the “light-lift” market for Vega, the “medium-lift” for Soyuz and the “heavy-lift” for Ariane 5. Three markets covered by three rockets, 2 European and 1 Russian, from European soil.

You can admire photographs of the ELS in this slide show prepared by the ESA.

The ELS launch pad in Guiana with its large flame bowl for evacuating exhaust gases and the tulip-shaped launch system, both carbon copies of the facilities at Plesetsk in Russia and at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The mobile service gantry, however, is a Guianan innovation dictated by the tropical climate (humidity and rain) and the desire to place the payload at the summit of the rocket once it is in its vertical position. Credit: ESA/Stéphane Corvaja

We can see for instance the famous “tulip” (translation of the Russian term “tyulpan”) which vertically supports the rocket with 4 metallic arms that fall away during the lift-off as well as the typical flame bowl, a sort of monumental trench that enables the engine exhaust gases to be evacuated during ignition and the initial seconds of the flight.

The tulip-shaped launch system is a Russian design that maintains the rocket in a vertical position on its launch pad and which falls away as the rocket rises during lift-off. Note the yellow counterweights that are part of this simple but efficient system! Crédit : CNES/ESA/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo CSG/R Liétar, 2011

To get a better understanding of what the Soyuz system in Guiana represents, we would suggest that you watch the video below. It was shown during the aforementioned evening on 21 September at the Cité de l’Espace. It has a French commentary that was added live by Dmitri Baranov, Deputy Director of Samara’s TsSK Progress where the rocket is manufactured, together with Philippe Droneau from the Cité de l’Espace who chaired this evening.



Soyuz in Kourou? No, in Sinnamary!
And there for all to see is part of the Guianan forest transformed into a Russo-European cosmodrome. Russian engineers live and work there with their European colleagues. As is often the case in such co-operation agreements, small adjustments have had to be made. For instance, the Russians assemble their launch vehicles horizontally and straighten them up on the launch pad.

The MIK in Guiana is the building in which the Soyuz rocket is horizontally assembled according to Russian tradition! Credit: ESA/Stéphane Corvaja

The Europeans and the Americans keep the rocket vertical right from the start. As regards the Guianan Soyuz, a version dubbed Soyuz 2, the rocket is still assembled horizontally in the MIK and straightened up on the launch pad, but a mobile service gantry is then put around it. This is so that it is protected from the rigours of the tropics and also so that its payload (satellites under their fairing) can be integrated with its summit in European fashion when the rocket is “standing up”. Another concession, the ELS is situated about 10 km from the zone given over to Ariane. In fact, although Ariane is on territory in the commune of Kourou, Soyuz “crosses” a French administrative boundary and is in the commune of Sinnamary. To say “Soyuz in Kourou” would therefore be wrong. It is more a case of “Soyuz in Sinnamary” or “Soyuz in Guiana”! This distancing enables Arianespace to quite happily receive certain American satellites that are deemed sensitive technology by the United States and are, therefore, subject to regulations known as ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations). In short, the satellites in question are admitted to the “Ariane zone”, but not necessarily to the “Soyuz zone”. The organisation of the Guiana Space Centre therefore achieves a delicate diplomatic balance.

Imagine yourself in the ELS! This website from the CNES provides a highly instructive interactive visit.

In the longer term, the presence of the Soyuz rocket and the infrastructure required for its use at the CSG inevitably leads to the question of human space flights. After all, why couldn’t the three-seater Soyuz spaceship blast off atop its Soyuz rocket from Guiana? Nothing of the sort has been planned as yet... However, there is nothing relating to the technical choices that have been made that stands in the way of this being possible one day.

Published on 19 October 2011