Guiana Space Center

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Ariane 5 and Envisat on their way to the launch pad at the Guiana Space Centre

The space centre has its own port.

The Guiana Space Center (French: Centre Spatial Guyanais) is a French 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 the fact that launches in the favourable direction are over water. The European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES as well as the commercial Arianespace company launch their satellites from Kourou.

The spaceport 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. The ground facilities include launcher and satellite preparation buildings, launch operation facilities and a solid propellant factory.

Kourou is located approximately 500 km north of the equator, at a latitude of 5°3'. At this latitude, the Earth's rotation gives an additional velocity of approximately 500 m/s, when the launch trajectory heads eastward. Therefore, manœuvreing the satellites to the desired orbit is usually a simpler process.

Fire safety is ensured by a detachment of the Paris Fire Brigade. Safety around the base is ensured by French Gendarmerie forces, assisted by the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment of the French Foreign Legion and other military forces.

[edit] Soyuz at CSG

ESA is currently building facilities for launching Russian built Soyuz rockets from this spaceport. Under the terms of a Russo-European joint venture, ESA will augment its own launch vehicle fleet with Soyuz rockets (and use them to launch ESA and/or commercial payloads) and the Russians will get access to the Kourou spaceport for launching their own payloads with Soyuz rockets. They will thus use the Guiana Space Centre as an alternative to their Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan launching site, with the benefit of significantly added payload capability due to the before-mentioned position near the equator.

The project is being co-funded by Arianespace, ESA, and the European Union, with CNES being the prime contractor. The project has a projected cost of approximately €320 mio, where €120 mio are allocated for modernizing the Soyuz vehicle [1]. The official opening of the launch site construction occurred on 27 February, 2007. Excavation work however, started several months before and is expected to run through most of Q2 2007. Russian firms are due to arrive at the spaceport starting March, to build the necessary infrastructure and support facilities for operating the Soyuz launch vehicle. The maiden launch of Soyuz from CSG is currently planned for late 2008 [2].