Guyana Space Centre
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 Sign at the entrance to the Guiana Space Centre |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | April 14, 1964 |
| Jurisdiction | Government of France |
| Headquarters | Kourou, French Guiana |
| Employees | 1,525 direct (2011) 7,500 indirect (2011) |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | ESA/CNES |
| Website | www |
| Map | |
Map of Guiana Space Centre
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The Guiana Space Centre or, more commonly, Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) is a French and European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana. Operational since 1968, it is particularly suitable as a location for a spaceport as it fulfills the two major geographical requirements of such a site:
The European Space Agency (ESA), the French space agency CNES (National Centre for Space Studies), and the commercial companies Arianespace and Azercosmos conduct launches from Kourou. This was the spaceport used by the ESA to send supplies to the International Space Station using the Automated Transfer Vehicle.
The location was selected in 1964 to become the spaceport of France. 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.
Since April 4, 2017, the centre has been occupied by 30 labor union leaders in the midst of the 2017 social unrest in French Guiana.
Kourou is located approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) north of the equator, at a latitude of 5°10'. The near-equatorial launch location provides an advantage for launches to low-inclination (or geostationary) Earth orbits compared to launches from spaceports at higher latitude. For example, the eastward boost provided by the Earth's rotation is about 463 m/s (1,035 miles per hour) at the Guiana Space Centre, as compared to about 406 m/s (908 miles per hour) at the United States east coast Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center spaceports which are at 28°27′N latitude in Florida. The proximity to the equator also makes maneuvering satellites for geosynchronous orbits simpler and less costly.
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