The 1,660th successful flight of a Soyuz launch vehicle took place on Friday, July 20 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. The launcher lifted off on schedule at 04:17 a.m. Plesetsk local time (02:17 a.m. in Paris) and the governmental spacecraft was placed on the target orbit.

This was the 6th Soyuz mission in 2001 and the 64th successful launch in a row associated with the Soyuz family of launchers. 9 of these 64 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 the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (25%), the Samara Space Center (25%), EADS (35%) 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.