The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou

In the 1960s French scientists had a problem. Algeria had just won its independence and was not very interested in continuing to host France’s fledgling spaceport, leaving them without a launchpad. They needed a site without earthquakes or hurricanes, close to the equator to take advantage of the slingshot effect (using the earth’s rotation for extra energy), and close to an ocean they could launch over to minimise the chance of debris falling on population centres.

They found their match in the territory of French Guiana, on the north coast of South America and only 5 degrees latitude north of the equator. On April 9, 1968, they launched their first rocket, Véronique, inaugurating a facility that would go on to launch over 300 rockets in total, including those containing research probes to various planets and the James Webb space telescope.

The spaceport houses over a dozen complexes across 660 square km between the towns of Kourou and Sinnamary, French Guiana, and employs 1,400 permanent employees. It currently launches two types of rockets: the Vega-C and the Ariana 6. It’s possible to see rocket launches from Cayenne, though the best views are from one of the hills just outside of Kourou.