Soyuz rocket puts European Galileo satellites to orbit

11:53, 15.10.2012 1 min read

Two Galileo-IOV European navigation satellites and the Fregat-MT booster separated from the third stage of the Soyuz-ST-B rocket, the Federal Space Agency told Interfax-AVN on Friday, October 12.

"The satellites are due to separate from the Fregat-MT booster at 0200 Moscow time on Saturday," it said.

The Soyuz-ST-B rocket carrying the European satellites blasted off the Kourou Space Center in South America at 1015 Moscow time on Friday.

That was the third Soyuz launch from Kourou and the first one done in 2012. Russia and France signed a long-term cooperation agreement to launch Soyuz-ST rockets from the Guiana Space Center in November 2003.