Europe's Spaceport - The Future

The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, is the major European spaceport, with satellite launches that benefit from the location 4 degrees north of the equator.

Over the last 30 years, 192 Ariane rockets, including 48 Ariane 5s, have been launched from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The story does not stop here. New classes of rocket are soon to be launched and other ambitious projects are under study.

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Europe's Spaceport is situated in the northeast of South America in French Guiana, an overseas department of France.

In 1964 the French Government chose Kourou, from 14 other sites, as a base from which to launch its satellites. When the European Space Agency came into being in 1975, the French Government offered to share its Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) with ESA. For its part, ESA approved funding to upgrade the launch facilities at the CSG to prepare the Spaceport for the Ariane launchers under development.

Since then, ESA has continued to fund two thirds of the spaceport's annual budget to finance the operations and the investments needed to maintain the top level services provided by the Spaceport. ESA also finances new facilities, such as launch complexes and industrial production facilities, for new launchers such as Vega or for the exploitation of Soyuz.

Kourou lies at latitude 5°3', just over 500 km north of the equator. Its nearness to the equator makes it ideally placed for launches into geostationary transfer orbit as few changes have to be made to a satellites trajectory.

Launchers also profit from the slingshot effect, that is the energy created by the speed of the Earths rotation around the axis of the Poles. This increases the speed of a launcher by 460 m per second. These important factors save fuel and money, and prolong the active life of satellites.

Thanks to its geographical position, Europes Spaceport offers a launch angle of 102°, enabling a wide range of missions from east to north. In fact, Europes Spaceport is so well placed that it can carry out all possible space missions.

Safety is equally important. French Guiana is scarcely populated and 90% of the country is covered by equatorial forests. In addition there is no risk of cyclones or earthquakes.

• http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers...

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The Guiana Space Centre is a spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. Operational since 1968, it is particularly suitable as a location for a spaceport due to its proximity to the equator, and that launches are in a favourable direction over water. The European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES, and the commercial Arianespace company conduct launches from Kourou.

The location was selected in 1964 to become the spaceport of France. When the European Space Agency (ESA) was founded in 1975, France offered to share Kourou with ESA. Commercial launches are bought also by non-European companies. ESA pays two thirds of the spaceport's annual budget, and has also financed the upgrades made during the development of the Ariane launchers.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiana_S...
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