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.