June 10 - A journey into outer space started at sea level in St Petersburg for two launch vehicles involved in the Kourou Space Centre (KSC).

High and heavy specialists from Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg, working with specialists from Russian freight forwarder, Universal Forwarder, loaded two launch vehicles destined for the KSC - Guyana Space Centre - in French Guyana, at the start of the month.

Containers with sets of renovated launch vehicles were loaded onto Colibri by gantry cranes. Assemblies of launch vehicles Soyuz-ST had been transferred from rail to roll-trailers and transported to the vessel at the ro-ro terminal.

This was the fourth loading operation of equipment for the space centre carried out under the framework of the intergovernmental agreement for co-operation signed between Russia and France for the development and operation of space launch vehicles.

The Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg handled around 12 million tonnes of cargo in 2010.