This week, Jean-Luc and I visited the Soyuz launch site, which is about 20 km from the Ariane 5 launch site. The Soyuz, which has existed for over 50 years, is the most reliable and only man-rated (built with the highest quality to fly humans as well as satellites) launch vehicle in the world, not counting the soon-to-be-retired shuttle. In fact, Galaxy 14 was launched on a Soyuz out of Baikonur - home of the Russian Space port - in 2005.
Soyuz in French Guiana, which will be marketed and managed by Arianespace, will be operational in 4Q 2011. What you see here today is the flame trench, where all the exhaust will flow out during the main engine ignition. Unlike most other launch vehicle systems, the Soyuz does not use a water deluge system (the dumping of tens of thousands of gallons of water at the base of the main engines prior to engine firing) to suppress the acoustic vibrations that typically occur on other launch vehicles at main engine start (i.e. Ariane 5).
When visiting the pad and infrastructure, we do a site survey to evaluate the readiness of the Soyuz. Once the pad becomes operational, the Soyuz will be part of the standard offerings by Arianespace and could be launching an Intelsat satellite in the future.
Contributor: Brian Sing, Satellite Mission Director, Intelsat New Dawn
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