The Guiana Space Center is a French spaceport on the coast of French Guiana, which is located in the northern part of South America. Such action by Russia shows the increasing cooperation between the European and Russian space programs.

The Guiana site is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Suriname near the coastal town of Sinnamary (between Kourou and Iracoubo). It is about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the Earth’s equator, making it very favorable to launch craft into space, especially with water positioned underneath ascending rockets. Its latitude of 5 degrees, 3 minutes gives additional speed of about 500 meters (0.3 miles) per second to rockets moving eastward around the Earth.

Besides the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos), the French space agency CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales) and the French company Arianespace SA launch from the Guiana Space Center (French: Centre Spatial Guyanais). The site has been an operating launch facility for ESA since 1975 and for Arianespace since 1984.

Excavation work began two years ago on the Russian site and is expected to continue well into the first half of 2007. Beginning in March 2007, the construction of buildings is expected to commence in support of the launching of Soyuz launch vehicles. Roskosmos officials have declared that the first launch of a Soyuz rocket is expected to be in late 2008.

The Russian project is being funded by the European Union, ESA, and Arianespace SA. The French CNES is the prime contractor for the construction project. ESA officials have signed agreements to launch some their spacecraft with the use of Soyuz rockets from this site.

The Guiana Space Center will be used in additional to Russian’s primary launch facility, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Web page of the Guiana Space Center is: http://www.cnes.fr/web/4678-centre-spatial-guyanais-english-version.php.

The Russian Federal Space Agency’s Web site is: http://www.federalspace.ru/.

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