[Satellite TODAY 04-05-10] Arianespace has assembled the large mobile service gantry for the medium-lift Soyuz launch vehicle at the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana, the company announced April 1.
    The gantry is nearly identical to the Soyuz’s launch sites at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia standing up to 45 meters high.  
    Construction of the gantry is taking place over a dual rail track system, which the gantry will move along as it transits the 80-meter distance from its roll-back position to the launch pad for payload integration.
    Arianespace is on schedule to introduce the Soyuz launch service this year.