alternate location for French/European spaceport

yofie

Banned
In the early to mid 1960s, the French space agency had been thinking OTL of either southern France or French Guiana (or perhaps some other equatorial location) in which to place the spaceport. In the event that the territory of French Guiana is part of another country (e.g. Brazil), would the French have still thought of putting their spaceport in an equatorial location (e.g. Guyana - similar geography to French Guiana)? Or would they have placed it in the south of France (like in the Roussillon region)?
 

abc123

Banned
In the early to mid 1960s, the French space agency had been thinking OTL of either southern France or French Guiana (or perhaps some other equatorial location) in which to place the spaceport. In the event that the territory of French Guiana is part of another country (e.g. Brazil), would the French have still thought of putting their spaceport in an equatorial location (e.g. Guyana - similar geography to French Guiana)? Or would they have placed it in the south of France (like in the Roussillon region)?

As I heard there was 7 locations: Southern Algiers, French Guiana, Trinidad, French Polynesia, Gabon/Cameroon and 2 more but I can't remember.

Well, I think that Cameroon or Gabon or Cote Ivore would do the trick just fine.
;)
 

yofie

Banned
When Kourou in French Guiana was selected as the spaceport's site in the mid-1960s (after agreeing to withdraw from its previous base in Algeria after independence there in 1962), it was the clear favourite out of 15 possible equatorial sites. (This was not counting France itself, of course.) This was because French Guiana a) is quite close to the equator (thereby facilitating launches), b) already had port and airport facilities (just waiting to be improved), c) has had political stability due to its being politically a part of France. In this scenario, the last part is butterflied away (being a part of Brazil), and after all, Belem had also been considered for the spaceport site but was eliminated as a choice largely because of political stability issues.

The next best choices for the siting of the spaceport - Darwin, Australia; Belem, Brazil; Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia; and Trinidad - all had issues related either to political stability, vulnerability to hurricanes, or were simply too far away from Europe. Other choices included a couple of sites right around Guadeloupe (a French dependency in the Caribbean), Madagascar, the Marquesas (in French Polynesia), and Mauritania. Just look up the Guiana Space Centre's website for more.
 
Cape York Peninsula, Australia has been mooted. It doen't quite have the rotational kick of Kouru but makes up for that with a much shorter wet seaon, and better weather in general. Also apparently there is some wasp that makes it's nests in Ariane rocket and the agency has to keep the rocket's empty spaces pressurised or something to stop these wasp fucking the rocket. Another thing is that CYP is in Australia, a first world country with an educated population, advanced infrastructure, strong economy and stable government.

As a PoD, the ELDO programme goes differently.
 

yofie

Banned
Cape York Peninsula, Australia has been mooted. It doen't quite have the rotational kick of Kouru but makes up for that with a much shorter wet seaon, and better weather in general. Also apparently there is some wasp that makes it's nests in Ariane rocket and the agency has to keep the rocket's empty spaces pressurised or something to stop these wasp fucking the rocket. Another thing is that CYP is in Australia, a first world country with an educated population, advanced infrastructure, strong economy and stable government.

As a PoD, the ELDO programme goes differently.

Where did you hear about Cape York as a possibility?

More generally, I'm just trying to think whether it was because of France's strong desire to put a spaceport in French Guiana that propelled the French space agency to look into the equatorial locations? In other words, without coveting French Guiana, would it not have bothered to study the other potential sites and just stuck to France itself?
 
I've read a whole book on how awesome CYP would be, written way back in the 80s.

But of course when Britain pulls out of ELDO etc then it forfiets any say in where its facilities should be.
 
Where did you hear about Cape York as a possibility?

More generally, I'm just trying to think whether it was because of France's strong desire to put a spaceport in French Guiana that propelled the French space agency to look into the equatorial locations? In other words, without coveting French Guiana, would it not have bothered to study the other potential sites and just stuck to France itself?
France isn't a good launch site.
A good launch site has good transport infrastructure and several thousands of kilometers of empty space in the launch directions for boosters and stages to drop without killing people. (i.e. ocean or steppe) Said empty space also should be eastwards, otherwise the rotation of the earth will work against you instead of helping. Space to the north would also be nice for polar launches.

Kourou has all of that and can launch in any declination from equatorial to polar, France doesn't, neither do Sao Tomé and Principe f.e., wrong heading!
 

yofie

Banned
I've been thinking, Guyana (formerly British Guiana) could work about as well as French Guiana in terms of installing a spaceport. It has a geography similar to that of French Guiana, and its coastline has the same orientation by and large. You can't say the same thing about Guadeloupe or Martinique, for instance - those are series of small and mountainous islands.

The only real objection to British Guiana would be that in the 1960s, France's president was Charles de Gaulle, who didn't want Britain in the EEC. But otherwise, maybe the French government would have negotiated with the British for launching a spaceport in then-British territory anyway.
 
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