Soyuz rocket rolls to launch pad in French Guiana

BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: April 1, 2014

Russian and European ground crews working in South America completed assembly of a Soyuz rocket on the launch pad Monday ahead of a Thursday liftoff to begin deployment of a multi-billion dollar Earth observing system.

The Sentinel 1A spacecraft bolted atop the Soyuz rocket is the first of up to a dozen missions planned for launch before the end of the decade to supply data on Earth's land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere to global scientists and European governments.

The data will be instrumental to responding to threats such as climate change, natural disasters, or man-made incidents like oil spills.

Liftoff is set for 2102:26 GMT (5:02:26 p.m. EDT; 6:02:26 p.m. local time) from the Soyuz launch pad at the Guiana Space Center, the European-run spaceport on the northern coast of South America.

The launch will mark the seventh Soyuz mission to take off from French Guiana since October 2011.

Weighing more than 4,700 pounds at liftoff, the Sentinel 1A satellite carries a C-band synthetic aperture radar to track changes in land cover, monitor sea ice and locate oil spills.

The spacecraft was attached to the Soyuz rocket Monday evening after the three-stage rocket rolled to the launch pad from its integration building earlier in the day.

The rollout operations began Monday around sunrise. Russian workers moved the three-stage rocket on a specialized transporter-erector system riding on rail tracks.

By midday, the Soyuz was lifted vertical over the launch pad's cavernous flame trench carved out of granite bedrock.

The Sentinel 1A spacecraft, already enclosed inside the Soyuz rocket's ST-type 13.5-foot-diameter payload fairing, arrived at the launch pad Monday evening before it was lifted into the facility's 17-story mobile gantry for mating with the Soyuz third stage.

The Soyuz fairing, Sentinel 1A payload and the mission's Fregat-M upper stage are collectively referred to as the "upper composite" of the launcher.

See our Mission Status Center for the latest news on the mission.