Guiana Space Centre, Kourou
node · earth
Europe's spaceport, on the Atlantic coast of French Guiana at about 5° north, and the clearest demonstration of why launch geography is worth money. At five degrees from the equator a rocket receives nearly the maximum possible boost from the Earth's rotation — some 460 metres per second — and, more valuably, a payload bound for geostationary orbit needs almost no plane change on arrival, which can be worth a substantial fraction of a tonne of payload compared with launching from higher latitudes. The site opened in 1968 after France lost its Algerian range, and it has served Ariane launchers since 1979 and Ariane 6 since its first flight in July 2024. Soyuz vehicles flew from a dedicated pad there from 2011 until European–Russian cooperation ended in 2022. The range points east and north-east over open ocean; the surrounding equatorial forest and low population make the safety corridors straightforward.
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Assembled narrative · 1
Assembled from 9 blocks · 1 evidence · 4 related
- Story
- Europe's spaceport, on the Atlantic coast of French Guiana at about 5° north, and the clearest demonstration of why launch geography is worth money. At five degrees from the equator a rocket receives nearly the maximum possible boost from the Earth's rotation — some 460 metres per second — and, more valuably, a payload bound for geostationary orbit needs almost no plane change on arrival, which can be worth a substantial fraction of a tonne of payload compared with launching from higher latitudes. The site opened in 1968 after France lost its Algerian range, and it has served Ariane launchers since 1979 and Ariane 6 since its first flight in July 2024. Soyuz vehicles flew from a dedicated pad there from 2011 until European–Russian cooperation ended in 2022. The range points east and north-east over open ocean; the surrounding equatorial forest and low population make the safety corridors straightforward.
- Knowledge
- Guiana Space Centre, Kourou
- Connections
- The commercial launch industry
- Arianespace is founded as the first commercial launch services company
- Evidence
- Supports the fact that commercial orbital launches and commercial reentries from United States territory occur under FAA licence, and that a commercial reentry requires a licensed and approved landing site — the constraint that delayed the first commercial manufacturing return. V55 verification basis: FAA records were not retrieved in this session; no licence number is cited and mission dates are stated from author knowledge.
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No public Signals are attached to this object. Signals show what changed and when it was observed — never a direction or a rank.
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/atlas?object=SITE_GUIANA_SPACE_CENTRE&experience=SITE_GUIANA_SPACE_CENTRE