1664th Successful Launch of Soyuz

The 1,664th successful flight of a Soyuz launch vehicle took place on
Thursday, October 25, 2001 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The
launcher lifted off on schedule at 03:34 p.m. Plesetsk local time
(01:34 p.m. in Paris) and the governmental spacecraft was placed on
the target orbit.

This was the 10th Soyuz mission in 2001 and the 68th successful launch
in a row associated with the Soyuz family of launchers. 10 of these 68
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.