Soyuz-Fregat rocket launch at night from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 20 March 2000. This was flight ST08 by the French-Russian consortium Starsem. Starsem is a commercial organisation that uses Soyuz rockets to deliver payloads, such as satellites, into Earth orbit. The payload would be contained in the Fregat upper stage (upper centre), which sits above three lower stages that boost the cargo into orbit.