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by russss 5481 days ago
To elaborate, this manual refers to the Soyuz rocket, not the spacecraft which is flown to the ISS. Specifically, it's the interface documentation for attaching your payload to it. (The Russians/Soviets have a long history of naming their rockets and spacecraft identically.)

The ESA are collaborating with the Russians to build a Soyuz launch site at Kourou in Guiana. It's pretty much a complete clone of the site at Baikonur:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SBynwXjyxKI/TZiECQqNtGI/AAAAAAAACS...

This gives commercial customers an increase in payload capacity compared to launching from Baikonur because Kourou is nearer the equator (especially relevant for geosynchronous orbits). Plus you get the legendary Soyuz reliability.

I believe they're planning on the first launch from Kourou before the end of 2011.