Russia Eyes Fallbacks To Baikonur Cosmodrome

By Michael A. Taverna, Frank Morring, Jr.

PARIS — Work on the new Soyuz launch site at Europe’s South American spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana, is proceeding rapidly, while Russia continues to lay the groundwork for a new cosmodrome that could offload operations from the venerable Baikonur site in Kazakhstan.

At Kourou, the 52-meter-tall mobile gantry that will allow the medium-lift rockets to roll to the pad in the vertical ...

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