Paris, Feb. 27 (EIRNS) – A wire by AFP from Moscow datelined Feb. 26 says that “Russia is suspending space launches from French Guiana and withdrawing its technical personnel in response to EU sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the space agency Roscosmos announced.
“In response to EU sanctions against our enterprises, Roscosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners over organizing space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdrawing its technical personnel ... from French Guiana,” Dmitry Rogozin, chief of the Russian space agency, said on messaging app Telegram.
There are currently 87 Russian nationals in French Guiana, Roscosmos said. The next Soyuz launch from Kourou was scheduled for April 6. An agreement between the European Space Agency and Russia on the use of launchers was signed in 2005. It enabled the Russian Soyuz launchers to use Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana as a launch base. Soyuz lifted off for the first time from the spaceport in French Guiana in 2011.