But for the first time, the Colibri is in Russia’s St Petersburg, ready to ship a special cargo across the Atlantic Ocean – the legendary Soyuz launch rockets.

“On our side, on the European side, it’s important to have a Soyuz launcher, because it is very good. It’s a launch vehicle which has been operated successfully for many years, and it has a very good capacity,” says Bruno Gerard, head of Arianespace Soyuz in French Guiana project.

Guiana’s space center specializes in orbiting commercial satellites – and out of all those currently whizzing round in space, more than half were launched from there.

But it was the world’s demand for even more satellites that saw Russia move into the frame.

Three years ago the European Space Agency paid a whopping $150 million so that a Soyuz launch pad could be built in France’s overseas territory.

In return, Russia pledged to modernize its Soviet-era technologies.

“Soyuz-ST launchers have especially been designed for use in Kourou’s tropical climate – it’s rather humid there, so we had to take that into account. For that purpose, we also built a special mobile tower – it will cover the rocket before launch. We also made some changes, adapting our launchers and our launch pad to the European security standards,” explains Sergey Tyulevin, chief engineer of the ‘Progress’ Space Centre.

The agreement has rocketed Russia’s Soyuz program into new international markets, and provided many benefits for both sides.

“This project is especially interesting for Europe – they only have Arianespace boosters. They need other launchers for its work. But it’s also crucial for Russia – that means jobs for many people, and of course money. Europe paid Russia for building the Soyuz launch pad in French Guiana, and now will pay Russia for every launch,” says Valentin Prikhodkin, Deputy General Director of ‘Progress’.

For Colibri’s captain Dominique Puget there's not much difference between the European Ariane and Russian Soyuz – for him, they're both simply “the cargo”. He has no time to think about politics or economics, as his job is just to deliver both safely and on time.

And while this is what the captain is most anxious about just hours before departure, it’s not the only thing on his mind!

“At the beginning it’s cold – by the end of the journey it’ll be very hot! I now wear many many jumpers, and will take them off, one by one, to leave just a T-shirt at the end. The weather will change dramatically during the journey. That’ll be rather challenging, but this is not our first time, so we’ll manage to work it all out,” Dominique Puget says.

This will actually be Dominique’s fifth trip with a space cargo, but it won’t be his last: with Europe having signed for at least 14 Russian boosters for Kourou, the Colibri is likely to be plowing back and forth across the ocean for some time.

The Colibri’s journey across the Atlantic is expected to take around three weeks.

So, by late November the first two Soyuz launch vehicles should arrive at the Guiana space center. And this, officials say, will open a new chapter in Russian space exploration.

Read also – Russia Builds New Spaceport for Lunar and Martian Missions