Galileo Launch Coverage

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Galileo_IOV/

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Galileo_...RFFURTG_0.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...-french-guiana

"The stakes are high, Russian and European space officials admit,
because they want Soyuz, the most dependable space rocket ever built,
to be used to ferry humans into space in a few years' time. The new
launch site has been built with that goal in mind . . . It may seem an
extraordinary venture, the interplanetary equivalent of Fitzcarraldo's
plans to build an opera house in the Amazonian jungle."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/ga...aunch-pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/esa_eve...7627767903603/

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/huge-stakes...162916464.html

"Soyuz is the world's most successful rocket, with a whopping 1,776
launches under its belt if the count includes forerunners dating back
to 1957. There have been only 99 failures, yielding a success rate of
94.4 percent."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...792300,00.html

"The Soyuz launch in the South American wilderness is a major event.
The hotels are booked solid to accommodate the crowd of politicians,
diplomats, business executives, journalists and lobbyists expected to
attend the launch, including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and
French President Nicolas Sarkozy."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...2300-2,00.html

"Sixty-meter lighting rods are installed to protect the tanks should
there be a thunderstorm. . . . The countdown will be done in Russian
and French. The members of the Baikonur team will be holed up in their
own concrete bunker, while the Europeans will monitor the airspace
from their spaceport 13 kilometers away."