Posted: Thu, Mar 4, 2004, 10:21 AM ET (1521 GMT)
The European Space Agency has selected Starsem to launch the first demonstration Galileo satellites on Soyuz rockets late next year. Under the contract, announced Wednesday at the Satellite 2004 conference in Washington, two Soyuz vehicles will launch the two Galileo System Test Bed spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with the first launch scheduled by the end of 2005. Terms of the launch agreement were not announced. The satellites are designed to test the technologies that will be used in the operational Galileo satellite navigation system, as well as put the frequencies reserved for the system by the International Telecommunication Union into use before a 2006 deadline. Starsem is the European-Russian joint venture that markets the Soyuz to commercial customers.

Related Links:

•  AFP article
•  Arianespace press release