1669th Successful Launch of Soyuz

The 1669th successful flight of a Soyuz launch vehicle was performed
Thursday, April 25, 2002 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Starsem and its Russian partners report that the Soyuz TM-34 manned
transport spacecraft was accurately placed on the target orbit.

The launcher lifted off on schedule at 12:26 p.m. Baikonur local time (8:26
a.m. in Paris).

This 4th Soyuz mission in 2002 marked the 73rd consecutive successful launch
for the Soyuz vehicle family. 11 of these 73 successes were manned flights.

Soyuz sustained launch rate confirms its position as one of the world’s
primary launch vehicles. The 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