Idea #337 – Attending a launch of Soyouz in Kourou
The Guyanese Space center (CSG) is a French base of rocket launching, situated near Kourou in French Guiana. It was put into service in 1968. Placed under a latitude very close to the Equator circle, the site is just perfect to place in orbit the geostationary satellites, which benefit then from an additional speed of about 460 m/s bound at the speed of rotation of the Earth. Several launchers are used on the site, among which Ariane, Vega, or Soyuz.
For reasons of reliability, the latter is the most used to the world, with this day more than 1700 flights to its credit. In 1957, he had taken the first satellite Sputnik in the space, then Youri Gagarine in 1961, and finally hundreds of satellites and of the probes, as well as all of the outbound Russian or foreign cosmonauts for orbiting space stations (Mir and ISS). Thanks to our friends, we were able to assist exceptionally a shooting since the control room Jupiter, shooting intended to place in orbit two satellites of the constellation Galileo. Countdow : 3, 2, 1… Top launch!
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana, France
