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Russia suspends Soyuz-2 launches from French Guiana

Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, announced today that Russia is suspending all Soyuz-2 rocket operations with Arianespace at French Guiana in response to the sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) over Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.

In response to EU sanctions against our enterprises, Roskosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners over organising 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.

The next planned Russian launch from French Guiana for Arianespace is set for April, launching two EU GPS-type satellites. That launch is now in question. Russia only has 87 engineers in French Guiana, but whether Europe can launch without them is unlikely.

Russia’s other Arianespace commercial customer, the satellite constellation OneWeb, is owned jointly by the United Kingdom and private Indian investors and has a launch scheduled from Kazakhstan in March. While Russia probably intends to proceed with that launch, Arianespace, the EU, and the UK government might respond to Russia’s actions today by cancelling it in turn.

Meanwhile, there are hints coming from the Ukraine that Russia’s invasion is beginning to bog down. If so, expect Putin to try to negotiate a quick settlement, whereby he insists that the Ukraine abandon its effort to join NATO and commit to allying itself with Russia. Based on the poor support NATO provided in this war, expect the Ukraine to agree in some manner.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

12 comments

  • Col Beausabre

    They left before they were kicked out.

    In other news, France has impounded a ship owned by a sanctioned Russian company trying to make a run through La Manche

  • Questioner

    If I were Putin, I wouldn’t trust the West. The so-called West has repeatedly betrayed the Russians.

  • If so, expect Putin to try to negotiate a quick settlement, whereby he insists that the Ukraine abandon its effort to join NATO and commit to allying itself with Russia. Based on the poor support NATO provided in this war, expect the Ukraine to agree in some manner.

    If Putin respected the unalienable rights of his people, he would have nothing to fear from NATO.

    Because what we used to refer to as the “free world” would have nothing to fear from him.

    What he just did, on top of the history of the Holodmor and WWII, makes the case for letting his neighbors into NATO.

    This is all on Putin, with the Pseudodent Administration and their Climate Change Cult supporters aiding and abetting him.

  • sippin_bourbon

    Every overture to include Russia into the the Western world has been used as a tool for manipulation by Putin.

    No one has betrayed Russia, Putin put them on this path himself.

  • sippin_bourbon

    An even more important point is that you cannot betray someone that has given absolutely no reason to be trusted.

  • David Eastman

    Well, Questioner’s comment there is certainly revealing, and puts a different slant on his many anti-SpaceX posts of the past.

  • Jeff Wright

    This is all very sad. If any good comes from this, it will be Putin’s removal. He put cosmonauts and his soldiers lives at risk for no good reason…and spilled blood of his fellow Slavs..

    Time for him to go.

  • GaryMike

    I’m thinking Putin considered himself the equal, or better, of Kasparov.

    I’m not a mind reader.

    The Ukrainians my prove that he isn’t one either.

  • Typo alert: 2nd to the last paragraph, 1st sentence: “and has a launch[ed] scheduled…”
    Delete the “ed”.

  • Michael McNeil: Thank you. Fixed.

  • Max

    Z-Man speculated:
    “expect Putin to try to negotiate a quick settlement”

    Putin’s negotiators are on their way…

    https://www.fox13now.com/news/national-news/putin-deploys-400-mercenaries-to-hunt-down-assassinate-zelensky

  • wayne

    questioner–

    the gulag gangster state of russia/soviet union; they have needed to GO, (all the way) my entire life.

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