The plan is for six launches of Ariane 6 next year, along with three Vega missions. That’s a return to the launch cadence of previous years, before war and Ariane delays sent the spaceport into a stifling jungle hiatus.
While it’s not yet clear that there’s demand to increase Ariane 6 missions beyond nine a year in total, in theory the spaceport can handle a launch every 11 days, or around 33 missions a year, of that rocket system.
It’s likely that rockets built by the likes of Spain’s PLD Space, France’s MaiaSpace, and the German duo Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg will also be blasting off from the center soon under the start-up plan.
While geography makes the spaceport one of the world’s best launch facilities, it still has the whiff of the 20th century. Manuals for old Windows operating systems gather dust on bookshelves in the radar station, while cellular signal is so bad that Starlink, offered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is the best way to access the internet.
Efforts to drag the spaceport into the 21st century are underway.
CNES is investing €47 million in a program to upgrade the spaceport’s digital infrastructure. However, it’s still tough to recruit young staff to French Guiana — legally a French department and part of the European Union, but a nine-hour flight from Paris.
The war also forced a rethink at the European Space Agency. | Yann Schreiber/Getty Images
The difficulty in hiring is a surprise to those who’ve taken the plunge and agreed to be posted in Kourou, a sleepy town with a beach and promenade of fish restaurants serving spicy passionfruit sauce.
“I don’t understand it, because on Friday evening you can go straight to swim,” said Michel Debraine, who runs the spaceport infrastructure office for ESA, adding there’s much to lure aspiring rocket engineers.
“If you want to work in a tropical climate, then usually you would need a jet ski or to open a pizzeria,” he said.
But before hundreds of new engineers descend on Kourou, something needs to be done about those Russian rockets.
Laura Kayali and Giorgio Leali contributed reporting from Paris.
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Publish date : 2024-07-21 21:51:00
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