A European Rocket Developer is Retooling an Abandoned Russian Launch Facility in South America

European rocket developer MaiaSpace has been rebuilding and retooling an old Soyuz rocket launch facility at Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. The plan is to have it ready for the maiden flight of MaiaSpace's own reusable launch vehicle design by next year, with pad tests scheduled for this year, United24 reports.

Between 2011 and 2022, Russia launched a number of Soyuz rockets from the Guiana Space Center, but following its invasion of Ukraine, the facility was effectively abandoned. Though there are still signs in Cyrillic throughout the facility, MaiaSpace has been working to beat back the encroaching jungle and update the site for use in its future launch efforts.

This isn't just a case of burning off some vegetation and rewriting signage, though. The facility also needed heavier construction efforts, and has already required cutting through major structural supports that once held the rockets in place ...