YEKATERINBURG, February 24. /TASS/. Russia is planning to conduct 19 launches of Soyuz-2 carrier rockets this year, breaking the record of 14 missions in 2014, the director general of the Yekaterinburg-based manufacturer of equipment for the space-rocket hardware said on Tuesday.

"The first launch is scheduled for February 27 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. In September, the first launch is expected from the Vostochny cosmodrome. The program envisages a total of 10 launches from Plesetsk, six from Baikonur, two from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana and one from Vostochny," NPOA head Leonid Shalimov said.

Mostly Russian satellites will be placed into orbit, for the first time over the past years, he said.

Just two Soyuz-2 carrier rockets will put to the orbit Galileo navigation satellites for a joint project with the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA). They will be launched from the Kourou cosmodrome.

Next year, a total of 22 Soyuz-2 booster launches and the first manned flight are planned, Shalimov said.