Guiana Space Center visit

  

Last Saturday we have managed to visit the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG), between Kourou and Sinnamary. 

CNS and mock Ariane 5 rocket

It was created in 1964 and counts for 750 km². This belongs to the CNES (France national space agency), and serves to several commercial clients, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). No human is flown to the space from here, only satellites. To this day missions for Ariane 5, Vega, and Soyuz have been sent to space. The partnership with Soyuz was supposed to end in 2023, but it was cut short due to their brilliant idea of invading a neighbor. On average, there are 9 launches per year, but agenda until 2030 seems to be more promising: if everything goes well, between 2025 and 2030 there may be 1 launch per month. As far as we are concerned, there should be the takeoff of Ariane 6 (the new project) between mid-June and mid-July 2024. We hope this will happen the first two weeks, so that we will still be here and be able to witness it. If not, we will have to come back. 😜

We took the afternoon bus ride. Visits take place twice per day, 8AM and 13PM between Monday and Saturday. There are restrictions in terms of path or availability of the visit according to the launch schedule. On the day of the visit be on time, and bring an original ID card. There will be a bag control as well. 

Picture

We could not be too close to Ariane 6 as it was preparing for its mission. Reading around, I have discovered that some media have managed to see and publish articles on Saturday about Ariane 6 being in vertical position. In fact, the new rocket is assembled laying, unlike its predecessors. This makes it possible to work on several parts at the same time (not safe when standing, like with Ariane 5), cutting the assemble time from 21 days to almost a week. The fact that the doors were completely closed, I understand now that it means that the rocket was standing already inside. Let's hope that we will manage to see it airborne! 🤞 

Ariane 6 (standing in the) hangar

We managed to see the launch pad of Ariane 5. It was huge! You can see here below the picture of the hole under the central propeller, the Vulcain. That one uses hydrogen and oxygen, creating salty water. The support propellers, which once empty detach and fall in the bottom of the sea (yes, I know 😕), other types of ergols that needed to be treated. The same seems to be true for Ariane 6, judging by the launch pad that has the same feature, except that is covered and can be moved like the Vega (produced by the Italian company Avio). The building will move 120m away and leave the space to the rocket to take off.

Ariane 5 launchpad

The space installations count for 11% of the whole surface, leaving the rest for nature. In the mornings, visits of the savannah take place. Why? Well, here you can find all sorts of animals, including 19 jaguars. Plenty of anteaters can be found too, as we did on our bus tour. In addition, the goal of the CGS is to have 90% of their energy, mostly air conditioned, to be produced with solar panels and biomass by 2030.

Yeah, ok. But how about the visits? They must be expensive! No, they are for free. The visit to the savannah and the bus tour. You should send an e-mail to check the availability, and then book. The bus ride lasts roughly 3 hours but they go very fast. Unfortunately, the museum is closed for the first half of 2024. I am pretty sure that they will try to open it by the launch of Ariane 6. It is also possible to try to get a spot at the "Jupiter room", the control room where clients, VIPs, and institutions will see the takeoff. Not the President of the French Republic, who seems to bring bad luck according to history. Again, via e-mail. More info for booking your visit here. I have no idea, though, about the museum, as it was being renovated.

Jupiter control room

We will visit the savannah as well, so we will be back on site. Despite it will be difficult to see animals, for obvious reasons, we may still be lucky and it would be great to know about how nature is coexisting with such an industry.