The European Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana

On the Caribbean coast, this facility has been launching rockets since 1964, and includes a space museum. Why here? A. a location near the Equator, meaning less energy is required get a spacecraft into orbit, and B. it has open sea to the east reducing the chance of lower stages of rockets and debris from launch failures falling on or near populated areas. The most recent launch was in December 2021 of NASA's revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope.



(NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Read more…
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of Tripatini to add comments!

Join Tripatini