ESA Space Station

The ESA space station in Guiana is spread over more land mass than the whole of London. It was decided that Guiana would have the station after the Franco-Algerian war in the 1960s. But the base didn't become operational until 1970.

There are different sections to the base dedicated to different things:

VEGA - a small rocket (by rocket standards), which will be carrying three satelites into space.

Ariance 5 - a large rocket, with the famous Vulcan engines (which reach a little over MACH 8 - 343 meters per second).

Satelites - kept in a very controlled environment, the satelites are prepared for lift off in a collection of buildings. Access is very restricted and you have to wear protective clothing, which makes you look like a mad scientist. Some of the satelites that I saw include: the first estonian satelite, launched in order to perform scientific experiments, notably seeing if we can use currents in order to propel small objects through space without using fuel. And secondly a French - Vietnamese satelite, made for communications and experiments (this one has lenses which enable it to take accurate pictures of earth with 10 by 10 meter pixels of earth - in 48 hours the whole of the earth's land mass is photographed).

CNES - Centre national d'études spatiales - a government agency focusing on scientific research in space, useful 'real-world' applications for ESA programs, as well as security and defence.