ESA is currently building ELS (French: l'Ensemble de Lancement Soyouz) for launching Russian-built Soyuz-2 rockets. The first Soyuz launch from ELS has been postponed several times. The current target date for the first launch is April 2011.[4]
ELS is located on the territory of Sinamary commune, 27 km (17 mi) from Kourou harbor.[5] It is 10 km (6.2 mi) north of the site used for the Ariane 5 launches. Under the terms of the Russo-European joint venture, ESA will augment its own launch vehicle fleet with Soyuz rockets—using them to launch ESA or commercial payloads—and the Russians will get access to the Kourou spaceport for launching their own payloads with Soyuz rockets. Russia will use the Guiana Space Centre in addition to Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Guiana location has the significant benefit of greatly increased payload capability, owing to the near equatorial position. A Soyuz rocket with a 1.7 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) performance from Baikonur, will increase its payload potential to 2.8 tonnes from the Guiana launch site.[6]
The rocket assembly procedures will differ from ones used at Baikonur. Traditionally, the Soyuz is being fully assembled in horizontal position, then transported to a launch pad and erected for launch. In ELS only the rocket will be assembled in horizontal position, then transported and erected. Then a spacecraft will be transported to the pad separately and attached to the rocket. To protect from dust and wind, the launch pad will have a closed gantry. The gantry will be able to move away from the pad for launch.[7]
