1666th successful launch of Soyuz

The 1,666th successful flight of a Soyuz launch vehicle took place on
Monday, February 25, 2002 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The
launcher lifted off at 08:26 p.m. Plesetsk local time (06:26 p.m. in Paris)
and the governmental spacecraft was placed on the target orbit.

This was the 1st Soyuz mission in 2002 and the 70th successful launch in a
row associated with the Soyuz family of launchers. 10 of these 70 successes
were human flights.

Soyuz sustained launch rate confirms its position as one of the world’s
primary launch vehicles. This rate also demonstrates Samara Space Center’s
continuous production capacity, as well as the operational capability of
launch teams at Baikonur under the authority of the Russian Aviation and
Space Agency.

Starsem is the Soyuz Company, bringing together all key players involved in
the production, operation and international commercial marketing of the
world’s most versatile launch vehicle. Shareholders in Starsem are EADS
(35%), the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (25%), the Samara Space Center
(25%) and Arianespace (15%).

The Starsem manifest for Soyuz missions currently includes contracted
launches for Space Systems/Loral, Alcatel Space Industries, the European
Space Agency and Eumetsat.

For further information, please contact

Claire COULBEAUX

+ 33 (0) 1 56 80 06 60

communication@starsem.com