Russian rockets clog Europe’s South American spaceport

Even in the most distant reaches of EU territory, Moscow is still posing problems.

Russian rockets are posing an unusual dilemma in one of the farthest reaches of the European Union.

Locked away in silos in a corner of the bloc’s spaceport on the northern coast of South America in French Guiana are at least two mothballed Russian Soyuz-2 rockets, according to four officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

A decision on what to do with the launchers, stuck in place since Russia's space agency Roscosmos suddenly withdrew its engineers at the outset of the war in Ukraine, is needed to make way for new European-made rockets.

“There is some sort of deal in preparation,” one of the officials familiar with the talks said. “We need the space.”

But that raises big geopolitical issues.