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Guiana Space Centre
Sign in to saveAlso known as Centre Spatial Guyanais, Europe's Spaceport, CSG
French and European spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana
Key facts
- Formed
- 14 April 1964 ; 62 years ago ( 1964-04-14 )
- Jurisdiction
- Government of France
- Headquarters
- Kourou , French Guiana
- Employees
- 1,700 direct (2020), 7,500 indirect (2011)
- Agency executive
- Philippe Lier, Director
- Parent agency
- ESA / CNES
- Website
- centrespatialguyanais .cnes .fr
via Wikipedia infobox
Research organization · ROR
- Type
- Facility
- Founded
- 1964
- Location
- Kourou, French Guiana
- Also known as
- CSG, Europe's Spaceport
- Status
- Active
GRID grid.507240.4 · ISNI 0000 0001 2185 1873
~24 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Guiana Space Centre (French: Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi; 270 nmi) north of the equator at a latitude of 5°. In operation since 1968, it is a suitable location for a spaceport because of its near equatorial location and open sea to the east and north.
At CSG, space launches are conducted by several European private companies and government agencies working together. The CSG land itself is managed by CNES, the French national space agency. The launch infrastructure built on the CSG land is owned by the European Space Agency (ESA). Private companies design and produce the rockets, and operate the launches including planning missions, handling customer relationships and overseeing the team at CSG that integrates and prepares vehicles for launch.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Guiana Space Centre” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
Gallery (12)
On the map
16 mapped locations