A French ambition that became European

Algeria’s independence in 1962 meant that France had to find another location to develop its own launch base. The choice was made in 1964: French Guiana.
 

However, operations continued in parallel in Algeria, leading to the success of the Diamant-A launcher, which performed its maiden flight from Hammaguir in 1965, putting the Asterix satellite into orbit. This was a significant milestone for France, enabling it to join the United States and the Soviet Union in the select circle of nations capable of putting objects into terrestrial orbit.

During his official visit to French Guiana on 21 March 1964, General de Gaulle announced that the space centre would be built in Kourou. He said: “We have a great feat to achieve, all of you here in French Guiana with the nation of France behind you. So great a feat that the whole world will notice in which département it happened. It has to be seen and known everywhere. We have started and we will move forward”. 

French Guiana was chosen as the location for the Space centre for a number of geographical and strategic reasons. Its proximity to the equator and its geographical location open to the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east offer considerable advantages for rocket launches. Moreover, as a French département, French Guiana provides a stable political and administrative framework.

Four years later, three launch pads had already been built: the sounding rocket site, the Diamant site and the Europa 2 site. Véronique, the very first sounding rocket, was launched from the French Guiana Space Centre on 9 April 1968. It was followed on 10 March 1970 by the first launch of the Diamant-B rocket. This rocket flew five missions, followed by three flights of its Diamant-BP4 version, until 1975.

With Diamant, France had mastered the liquid propulsion technology, but this was no longer sufficient to achieve its national ambitions. So it joined Europa, the launcher project managed by ELDO, the European centre for developing and building space vehicle launchers. This joint venture between six countries (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) was launched to compete with the United States in the new telecommunications market. 

None of the tests carried out on the Europa 1 launcher at the Woomera site in Australia were conclusive. In 1972, Italy and the United Kingdom withdrew from the programme and its new objective, Europa 2. The only version of the launcher to lift off from Kourou was a failure, which sounded the death knell of the programme, despite the launch site operating smoothly. 

Europa 3 did not see the light of day. ELDO experienced a crisis that France and Germany wanted to resolve as soon as possible in order to launch the satellites in their Symphony programme, which NASA refused to place in orbit.

Ariane and ESA put Europe's spaceport on orbit

With the Europa 3 project abandoned, the CNES launched the L3S project to develop a simpler, less expensive launcher. Adopted at the European Space Conference in Brussels in 1973, the new launcher was named Ariane.

30 May 1975 marked a major breakthrough for Europe, with the foundation of the ESA. The European Space Agency, an intergovernmental institution comprising ten member countries, took responsibility for developing the Ariane project. ESA provided 45% of the funding for the French Guiana Space Centre, which then geared up to launch Ariane. The Europa launch site became the Ariane launch facilities No. 1 (ELA 1). Three clean rooms were fitted out to accommodate the satellites and attract the first commercial customers, such as Intelsat, the American telecommunications giant, which entrusted one of its satellites to Ariane even before its maiden launch.

On 24 December 1979, Ariane’s first launch was a success, putting the first Ariane Technological Capsule, CAT-1, into orbit. Covered with sensors, it provided data on the conditions that a satellite carried by Ariane must withstand. Building on this success, Europe began to count on Ariane for its space development. Although not all the first launches were successful, European countries became increasingly enthusiastic about Ariane, corroborating the French space agency’s decision to develop Ariane 2 and 3, and to work on Ariane 4 even before the maiden Ariane 1 launch.

In 1980, Arianespace was born, bringing the Space centre into a new era, that of a space port. A commercial subsidiary of ArianeGroup, Arianespace consolidated itself as a space transportation company, setting up operations in Kourou and taking charge of commercial Ariane launches from the 9th launch onwards.

First launched in 1988 and followed by six versions, Ariane 4 was extremely versatile, capable of putting satellites weighing between 2 and 4.3 tonnes into orbit. It meant that Europe’s spaceport was the preferred choice for scientific and institutional launches, making it virtually indispensable for commercial launches, which had been severely hampered in the United States by the Challenger shuttle disaster. Under this impetus, Europe’s spaceport grew with the support of ESA, which had 15 members by 1995.

In 1996, Ariane 5 further strengthened the position of Europe's spaceport, with the ability to carry two heavy satellites in a single launch. Despite the failure of its maiden flight and that of its first ECA version, Ariane 5 followed in the footsteps of Ariane 4, becoming one of the most reliable launchers in the world.

Ariane 5, built in five versions, was capable of carrying out all types of missions, from telecommunications and Earth observation satellites to probes exploring the universe. It would also launch a series of five ATVs, cargo ships to resupply the International Space Station. In its 27-year career, studded with successes and iconic missions, Ariane 5 would carry out a total of 117 missions until 2023. 

A multi-launcher base

To strengthen its position in space transportation, Europe’s spaceport expanded globally and developed two new launch pads for launchers to diversify its launch offer: Soyuz, the legendary Russian launcher, and Vega, the new European small-lift launcher, would make their maiden flights in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

In 2014 and 2016, the 22-member ESA gave its backing to Ariane 6 and Vega-C: sharing common elements to enable series production, these new European launchers were designed to serve institutional and commercial markets with flexibility. The construction of the new launch facilities for Ariane 6 started and work would last from 2015 to 2021. This was the 9th launch pad built by CNES at Europe’s spaceport! 

On 26 February 2022, after 27 launches, the operation of the Russian Soyuz launcher at Europe’s spaceport was discontinued: Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, suspended its operations at Europe’s spaceport due to the international sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

As for Vega, after 22 missions, it would make its final flight on 4 September 2024, after passing the baton to its successor, Vega-C, which made its début on 13 July 2022 with a successful maiden flight.

A multi-operator base

Ariane 6 heralded the dawn of a new era in European space transportation. Its maiden launch on 9 July 2024 enabled Europe to regain its autonomous access to space after a period of inactivity due to the shutdown of Soyuz and then Ariane 5. Developed by ArianeGroup as part of an ESA programme, Ariane 6 is a powerful, highly versatile and scalable launcher, effectively addressing the growing needs and diversified missions of Arianespace’s institutional and commercial customers.

As part of Europe’s strategy to diversify access to space, Europe’s spaceport opened up to new operators. The historic Diamant and Soyuz sites were redeveloped to become multi-launcher facilities (ELM 1 and 2, respectively). They would be able to house several launch pads and many new European operators, selected by ESA and CNES to launch their micro- or mini-launchers. These private companies, which revolutionised the space industry with lower-cost launches and innovative technologies, chose to take advantage of Europe’s spaceport’s ideal location and excellent services.

To remain one of the world’s top-performing space centres, Europe’s spaceport is constantly modernising and adapting its infrastructure and systems to meet the needs of new and future launchers, particularly in terms of flexibility, speed and cost.