"All the companies are Moscow-based," said Alexander Kirilin, the general director of the Samara Special Design Bureau, without identifying their names. "They have the relevant licenses and extensive experience in shipping complex, outsize structures to the United States and Europe. Only one company will be selected."

In February 2006, Russian and French space officials concluded a contract on four launches of new missile carriers from the Kourou launch site.

Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian Space Agency, said work on the equatorial launch site was proceeding as scheduled, adding that the first launch of a Russian Soyuz carrier rocket would take place in the second half of 2008 or early 2009.

The 344-million-euro Kourou launch site, located near the equator, will make it possible for Russia's updated Soyuz-ST to orbit heavier cargoes than from the Plesetsk Space Center in northern Russia or the Baikonur launch pad rented by Russia from Kazakhstan.

The project, which is based on a November 2003 agreement between the Russian and French governments, will also allow Russia to substantially expand its commercial use of Soyuz carriers on the international market.

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