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| | | | | | | | | Kourou spaceport | |
Europe's spaceport
Europe’s main spaceport is near Kourou in French Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, which provides a location suitable for safe launches over the Atlantic Ocean. It benefits from the Earth’s rotation near the Equator, which gives a free boost of 463 metres per second to eastward-launched rockets. Originally selected by the French space agency CNES, which still runs the centre, the Kourou site has been vastly developed with funding by ESA for its Ariane launcher programmes. The Ariane 5 facilities alone, called ELA-3, cover 21 square kilometres, in a total of 850 square kilometres for the Guiana Space Centre.
Last update: 12 March 2002 | |
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