European Space Agency (THIS) with the help of a controlled explosion, dismantled the 52-meter mobile service tower of the Soyuz-ST rocket launch complex at the Kuru Cosmodrome
in French Guiana. In the future 80% infrastructure of the complex will be transferred to the startup Maiaspace (a subsidiary of the French Arianespace) for launches of the new Maia rocket.
For reference: Maiaspace was founded in 2022 year. Her two-stage Maia long rocket 50 meters and diameter 3,5 meter will be equipped with three Prometheus oxy-methane engines
on the first stage and one in the vacuum version — on the second. In a one-time version, the rocket will be able to launch into a sun-synchronous orbit up to 1,5 tons of cargo, in partially reusable — to
500 kilograms. A Colibri overclocking unit is also provided for it.
The joint program of ESA and "Roscosmos" "Soyuz on Kuru" for commercial launches lasted from 2002 by 2022 years. During this time, it was carried out from the cosmodrome 26 successful launches and one more, which ended in failure. The first launch of a Russian rocket has started 21 October 2011 year, and the last one 10 February 2022 year. As part of European-Russian cooperation, satellites of the European navigation system Galileo and OneWeb communication satellites were launched, designed to provide broadband Internet to users around the world. At the same time, reconnaissance satellites were launched for the needs of the French Ministry of Defense.
However, after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, the USA and the EU introduced sanctions against the space industry of the aggressor country, so "Roscosmos" at the end of February 2022 announced the termination of work and recalled Russian specialists. The advantage of the Kuru Cosmodrome is its location near the equator, which provides rockets with additional speed due to the faster rotation of the Earth. It, in turn, made it possible to launch much larger loads into orbit, than from three other cosmodromes in Russia and Kazakhstan — Plesetsk, Eastern and Baikonur, — which are still used to launch Soyuz rockets of various modifications.
Source: https://www.dw.com