Carrying 700 tons of propellant on board and with the power thrust equivalent to thirteen Jumbo 747 aircraft, the Ariane 5 launcher will lift the new European Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite and its co-passenger into orbit. At its near-equatorial location, the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, is ideal for launching satellites into the geostationary orbit. In this position a satellite circles the Earth at the same speed as the planet rotates, and therefore appears to 'hover' in one place - in the case of MSG above the Gulf of Guinea at 0° Longitude off the west coast of Africa.