The Guiana Space Centre ( French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...French: Centre Spatial Guyanais) is a France _ Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...French/ World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ...European A spaceport is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with airport for aircraft. ...spaceport near Kourou is a town in French Guiana, some 40 km northwest of the capital Cayenne. ...Kourou in French Guiana ( French: Guyane) is an overseas département (département doutre_mer, or DOM) of France, located on the Caribbean coast of South America. ...French Guiana. Operational since 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...1968, it is particularly suitable as a location for a spaceport due to its proximity to the In geography, the equator is an imaginary line drawn around a planet, halfway between the poles, where the surface of the roughly spherical planet is parallel to the axis of rotation. ...equator, and the fact that launches in the favourable direction are over water. The This article is about the European Space Agency. ...European Space Agency as well as the commercial Founded in 1980, Arianespace SA undertakes the production, operation and marketing of the Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 rocket launchers as part of the Ariane programme. ...Arianespace company launch their satellites from Kourou.

The spaceport was selected in 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...1964 to become the A spaceport is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with airport for aircraft. ...spaceport of France _ Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...France. When the This article is about the European Space Agency. ...European Space Agency (ESA) was founded in 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...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 The Ariane Family The name Ariane refers to a series of a civilian European expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. ...Ariane launchers. The ground facilities include launcher and satellite preparation buildings, launch operation facilities and a solid propellant factory.

The ESA is currently building facilities for launching The Russian Federation ( Russian: Росси́йская Федера́ция, transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija), or Russia (Russian: Росси́я, transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. ...Russian built The Soyuz launch vehicle is an expendable launch system designed by the Korolev Design Bureau (Soviet Union) and used as the launcher for the manned Soyuz spacecraft, as part of the Soyuz program. ...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 own payloads with Soyuz rockets. They will thus use the Guiana Space Centre as an alternative to their The Baikonur Cosmodrome (Russian: Космодром Байконур, Kosmodrom Baykonur), also called Tyuratam, is the worlds oldest and largest working space launch facility. ...Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan ( Kazakh: Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, IPA /qɑzɑqˈstɑn/; Russian: Казахстан, Kazakhstán, IPA /kɐzəxˈstɐn/), also spelled Kazakstan, is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Asia, and a former republic of the now extinct USSR. A portion of its territory west of the Ural River is located in eastern_most Europe. ...Kazakhstan launching site, with the benefit of significant added payload capability due to closer proximity to the In geography, the equator is an imaginary line drawn around a planet, halfway between the poles, where the surface of the roughly spherical planet is parallel to the axis of rotation. ...equator.

Kourou is located only 500 km north of the equator, at a latitude of 5 degrees. At this latitude, the Earth's rotation gives an additional velocity of almost 500 m/s. In addition, maneuvering the satellites to the desired orbit is usually simpler when the launch is made close to the equator.

External links

• Centre Spatial Guyanais (http://www.cnes.fr/html/-455-.php)
• Europe's Spaceport (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers-Europe-s-Spaceport/index.html) _ Information from ESA
• Europe's Spaceport (http://www.arianespace.com/site/spaceport/spaceport-sub-index.html) _ Information from Arianespace