PARIS, FEBRUARY 5, 2004. (RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ANDREI NIZAMUTDINOV). The Council of the European Space Agency (ESA) approved on Wednesday evening the programme of launching the Russian Soyuz booster rockets from the Kuru spaceport in the French Guiana.
ESA spokesman Franco Bonacino told RIA Novosti that it was only by the evening of February 4 that the participants in the session of the ESA Council at the level of ministers, which is being held in Paris, coordinated the remaining details, and now the booster rocket can be launched.
The second good news Bonacino mentioned was the coordination of the European guarantees for the Arianspace concern which is the producer of heavy Arian booster rocket. The issue of guarantees was directly dovetailed with Soyuz-Kuru project. That is why it was discussed for such a long period of time, explained the ESA spokesman.
