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___ Satellite View and Map of Guiana Space Center, Kourou, French Guiana

About Europe's Spaceport in Kourou

Europe's Spaceport is situated in the northeast of South America in

French Guiana, a country about the size of Austria and officially a region of

France. Europe's Spaceport covers an area of 750 km², almost as much as the city of New York.

Surrounded on two sides by equatorial forest, to the east it has a 50 km coastline bordering the Atlantic Ocean and to the south lies the town of Kourou. The Spaceport contains the administrative buildings, the Jupiter Control Centre (CDC), as well as the numerous facilities required for a launch.

Satellite view shows the facilities of Guiana Space Center (in French: Centre Spatial Guyanais).

The European spaceport is operational since 1968. In 1964 the French Government chose Kourou, from 14 other sites, as a base from which to launch its satellites. The location for the spaceport fulfills two major geographical requirements, it is quite close to the equator, so that the spinning earth can impart some extra velocity to the rockets, and it has uninhabited territory, 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, because the tracks of cyclones are more to the north, and the whole region is situated on the Guiana Shield, an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere.

To find a location use the form below.

Arianespace's 51st consecutive heavy-lift success with Ariane 5 orbited the ASTRA 2F and GSAT-10 satellites during an on-target mission from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Image: courtesy of © 2012 ESA-CNES-Arianespace

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