Ha, North Korea
That's how it's done
Europe's Sentinel-1B satellite thundered aloft yesterday from Kourou, French Guiana, en route to its Earth-monitoring role as part of the Copernicus environmental monitoring network. The Soyuz lifter departed the launchpad at 21:02 GMT. Some 23 minutes later, Sentinel-1B separated from the rocket's Fregat upper stage to …
it reminds me of the Apollo era of my youth, and puts a smile on my face. Wonderful really to see a Soyuz lift off a western satellite. It shows that despite the troubles we still have, differences can be overcome.
You could of course argue that free market forces simply made the Soyuz the best bang (or actually, "not bang", the last thing they want to see is a rocket go bang) for your buck. However, in 1969, as I sat watching the moon landing WAY past my normal bedtime, these free market forces weren't allowed to work.
So, I'll raise a pint to the successful launch, and further collaboration (there are worse causes).
À votre santé!
and
Поехали!
> Well, Europe doesn't quite have the all-or-nothing kind of sanctions that the US likes to go for...
Yup, and it's really hurting the US. The Europeans are developing "ITAR-free" hardware guaranteed to be free of American made parts. This means they can deal with the Chinese or Indians without problems. It also means Europe bones up on things it's weak at making, like large deployable antennas.
As an American citizen, I didn't know US satellites can't be launched by the Indians at ISRO. WTF?
"ITAR-free sells"
http://spacenews.com/u-s-itar-satellite-export-regimes-effects-still-strong-in-europe/
I must say I am also curious about the economics of setting up an entire союз launch infrastructure. Why are they not simply using Ariane launchers--are союз and Ariane suited for different mission profiles?
Or did Russia lease the facility and set up the infrastructure themselves, competing on cost with alternatives?
From good old Wikipedia: "Kourou is located approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) north of the equator, at a latitude of 5°10'. The near-equatorial launch location provides an advantage for launches to low-inclination (or geostationary) Earth orbits compared to launches from spaceports at higher latitude. For example, the eastward boost provided by the Earth's rotation is about 463 m/s (1,035 miles per hour) at the Guiana Space Centre vis-à-vis about 406 m/s (908 miles per hour) at the United States east coast Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center spaceports which are at 28°27′N latitude in Florida.[6][7] The proximity to the equator also makes maneuvering satellites for geosynchronous orbits simpler and less costly."