The Soyuz 2-1b has an increased-performance third stage engine, which is in addition to flight control and system upgrades already validated on the Soyuz 2-1a version - which has flown three times.

Arianespace will use the improved Soyuz for commercial operations from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. It will become the medium-weight launcher of reference, joining Arianespace's heavy-lift Ariane 5 and the lightweight Vega in a comprehensive family of vehicles.

Soyuz launchers will be processed horizontally and erected on the pad some 18 hours before liftoff.

Approved by ESA's council in February 2004, the ELS is under construction at the Malmanoury site, some 6 km West of the Ariane Launch Complexes and is planned to be operational for launches of Russian-built Soyuz launchers in 2006.

The Soyuz launcher, an offspring of the R-7 ballistic missile, is the most used and the most reliable launcher in the world, with some 1700 launches of satellites or manned flights since the first Sputnik was put into orbit in 1957 and since the first man, Yuri Gagarin, was sent into space in 1961.

Since 1996, the European-Russian company, Starsem, has been marketing the Soyuz launcher, which is routinely launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

From Kourou, Soyuz launchers will be able to launch up to 2.5 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), thus complementing the launcher family formed by Ariane 5, which provides heavy lift capacity of up to 10 tonnes to GTO, and Vega, for light launches to low Earth orbits.Credits: ESA-D. DUCROs

Related Links
Arianespace
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