Russia's space agency Roscosmos has confirmed that it will delay the launch of the Soyuz rocket, which was due to launch in French Guiana in April.
The postponement was carried out because of the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia, as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began last Thursday (24/2).
"Roscosmos ceases cooperation with European partners in organizing space launches from the Kourou Cosmodrome and withdraws all personnel, including launch crew, from French Guiana," Roscosmos wrote in a tweet on its official Twitter account.
Roscosmos is planning the withdrawal of 87 staff from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, which will help launch Soyuz rockets for Roscosmos and other Russian companies.
Arianspace previously planned to use the Soyuz rocket to launch satellites from French Guiana and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellites to be launched by Arianespace are the two Galileo satellites, which are scheduled to go into orbit in April.
But now the launch schedule had to be postponed, because the United States and the European Union imposed various sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.
"I can assure you that this decision has no consequences for the continuity and quality of Galileo and Copernicus' services," said Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Space, in a statement.
Russia and Europe are actually preparing a robotic mission to Mars, which is scheduled to launch in 2022. European Space Agency director Josef Aschbacher confirmed that ESA will continue to work with all of its programmers, including on the ISS and EXOMars missions, but that he is still monitoring developments on the current situation.