#Europe’s Spaceport

[tatmanblue]

YPSat looks back to Earth from atop Ariane 6 by European Space Agency Via Flickr: An image of Earth acquired by the ESA Young Professionals Satellite payload, YPSat, attached to the upper stage of the inaugural Ariane 6 rocket, launched on 9 July 2024. The YPSat project represents the culmination of about two and a half years of dedication and hard work core team of about 30 Young Professionals from various ESA Establishments, Directorates and disciplines. Sacrificing their spare time, they shouldered the entire responsibility of designing, building and testing the payload before finally witnessing its successful launch. Learn more. Credits: ESA-YPSat

[simonh]

Ariane 6 first liftoff by European Space Agency Via Flickr: Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6 powered Europe into space taking with it a varied selection of experiments, satellites, payload deployers and reentry demonstrations that represent thousands across Europe, from students to industry and experienced space actors. This inaugural flight, designated VA262, is a demonstration flight to show the capabilities and prowess of Ariane 6 in escaping Earth's gravity and operating in space. Nevertheless, it had several passengers on board. Ariane 6 was built by prime contractor and design authority ArianeGroup. In addition to the rocket, the liftoff demonstrated the functioning of the launch pad and operations on ground at Europe's Spaceport. The new custom-built dedicated launch zone was built by France's space agency CNES and allows for a faster turnover of Ariane launches. Ariane 6 is Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – will provide Europe with greater efficiency and possibility as it can launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight, while its upper stage will deorbit itself at the end of mission. ESA’s main roles in the Ariane 6 programme is as contracting authority – managing the budget from Member States participating in the Ariane 6 development programme; and as launch system architect – ensuring that the rocket and launch pad infrastructure work together. Ariane 6 is the latest in Europe's Ariane rocket series, taking over from Ariane 5 featuring a modular and versatile design that can launch missions from low-Earth orbit and farther out to deep space. Credits: ESA - M. Pédoussaut

[soup-mother]

something that really stuck with me watching the launch of the European Space Agency's Jupiter icy moon probe was the fact they were selling themselves up as "independent European spaceflight". like "look us europeans can do it without the usa or the Russians" all while they were standing in French Guiana...

like hold on a minute that's not "independent" you straight up couldn't do this without your fucking colonies!

the slogan of the Guiana Space Centre is "Europe's spaceport". like how much more on the nose can you get? French Guiana is the second largest region of France, it doesn't even get to be a country. European colonialism is still incredibly alive and well ESPECIALLY the French, and the fact they can't even have a space program without occupying foreign soil is just another strike against them. they act like it's the most natural thing in the world that it's part of france. it's genuinely fucked.

[tailschannel]

Sonic's going to space!

The JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) probe will embark on its eight-year journey to Jupiter and its icy moons, and our favorite blue hedgehog will be on board!

During the development of the probe back in 2019, Swedish scientist Dr. Jan-Erik Wahlund asked SEGA whether they may use Sonic as the mascot of the Radio & Plasma Wave Detector (RPWI) instrument, to which SEGA agreed. According to Dr. Wahlund, they chose Sonic due to their fondness for the character and the fact that he starred in many space adventures.

The probe, which will make several fly-bys around a part of our Solar System, will arrive in the Jupiter system in 2031. From there, it will orbit around and study several of Jupiter’s icy moons, particularly Ganymede, and Callisto, and Europa, before settling on orbiting Ganymede’s orbit, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a natural satellite other than our own Moon.

The spacecraft is scheduled to launch this Friday at 8:14 am ET from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The Ariane 5 rocket will bring the probe to space in its final-ever mission.

(Article written by Spectre for the Tails' Channel newsfeed.)

[thatsmimi]

JUICE is launching on April 13th!

You can watch Juice's launch on ESA's youtube channel at 13:45 CEST (11:45 GMT/07:45 EST)

Schedule Milestones (CEST)

14:15 Juice launch on Ariane 5 14:42 Separation of Juice from Ariane 5 upper stage 14:51 Earliest expected time to acquire Juice’s signal 15:55 Solar array deployment expected to be completed

More details about the launch can be found here:

If you want to watch see off our space cowboy with other 17776/20020 fans, we are hosting a watch along event here at the Class of 17776-20020 (16+ only) discord server! Come join and hang out!

[vincent2845]

It's happening <3

ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, JUICE (our beloved <3), is planned for launch at 13:15 BST/14:15 CEST on 13 April (click to convert to your time zone!) from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Click here (ESA Web TV) or here (Youtube) for live streams!

[fatehbaz]

How is it that a small wedge of the South American continent, long claimed by a major European power and still administered by it, could present a profile of wilderness at the end of the twentieth century? How might this same location on the globe have proved useful for such an unlikely combination of purposes as the resettlement of convicted criminals and the launching of rockets?

French Guiana remains a remarkably insignificant artifact of the political landscape - rarely noticed by most of France, let alone anyone else - as well as one of the least settled regions of the world. It has also hosted two exceptional experiments of the French state: the historical penal colony known in English as “Devil's Island,” which operated between 1852 and 1946, and the contemporary space center that launches the European consortium rocket Ariane, responsible for transporting a good half of the commercial satellites orbiting our globe. [...] Its base, the Guiana Space Center (CSG), indeed lived up to its slogan, becoming “Europe's Spaceport,” a center of high technology near the equator. [...]

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[T]he penal colony begins operation in the middle of the nineteenth century, partly as a substitute for a system of plantation slavery. It conceives of French Guiana as open land for agricultural settlement, fertile ground for a tropical - and French - Australia, where the action of moral reform can translate into a scheme of colonization. [...] [T]hese early hopes are belied by the high mortality of the convicts [...]. Despite periodic calls for reform and increasing international discomfort, the bagne lasts through World War II. It leaves a deep mark on French Guiana, in both symbolic and material terms. As the movement of seventy thousand exiles progresses, the surrounding landscape shifts from a luxuriant field of dreams into a tableau of terror. At the same time, the colony as a whole grows accustomed to the presence of this artificial prison world within it [...].

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The space center begins operation in the second half of the twentieth century, in the midst of the Space Race and in the aftermath of the Algerian War. It conceives of French Guiana as open land for technical experiments and a gateway into equatorial orbit, an even more tropical - and French - Cape Canaveral. [...] [A] regular stream of technicians and engineers arrives to assemble and guide it into space. The initial mandate to provide France with a launch site expands into a focus on commercial satellites, and although local opposition to the project continues, the effects of the enterprise on French Guiana in both symbolic and material terms only deepen. As the Ariane rocket gains importance, the surrounding landscape transforms from an orphan of history into a handmaiden of the future. At the same time, the department grows accustomed to an increased infusion of consumer goods, technical personnel, and [...] a new island with an artificial environment and a powerfully altered social profile.

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At slightly closer range a number of striking structural similarities emerge. Not only do both projects found towns (St. Laurent on the one hand and the new Kourou on the other), but both operate as rival poles of influence and authority relative to the civil administration of French Guiana. Each involves [...] its own hierarchies, its own links to bureaucratic networks in Paris, and its own claims to significant national French interests. Each [...] exerts considerable influence over the surrounding economy. Most crucially, each controls and orders a separate territory within the larger political entity; each has a spatial presence, a direct impact on the landscape. And tied to this spatial strategy, each comes to serve as a symbolic nexus in collective Metropolitan imagination. [...] One employs leftover forces of law and order, whereas the other employs highly trained technical personnel; thus [...] both [...] have ties to the military [...]. The penal colony imports the unwanted of France, whereas the space center imports the selected few. [...]

And the bagne reflects visions of an ancient underworld, whereas Ariane reflects visions of a new overworld. [...]

Many of the specific additional attributes of a desirable site for penal colonization (distance from the Metropole, possibility of confinement and surveillance, and prevention of local disturbance) find echoes in the specific additional attributes of a desirable site for launching rockets (distance from the Metropole, adequate security, adequate possibility of transport, and political stability).[...]

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The penal colony takes shape at a crucial moment in European colonial understandings of place and labor. Slavery had just been abolished in the French Empire, and an accompanying understanding of work in terms of race had far from expended its interpretive force. [...] Work represented the route to a better future, to the growth of new, valuable lands. [...] If slavery were at an end, then the crucial question facing the colony was that of finding an alternative source of labor. During the period of the early penal colony we see this search for new slaves, not only in French Guiana, but also throughout colonies built on the plantation model. Thousands of Asian Indians and Chinese found their way to new homes in different corners of the British Empire, serving as contract laborers on plantations. [...]

Kourou [the space center] is a neutralized, controlled corner of the tropics, with much of its cultural fabric simply imported. Amid the restricted space of artificially cooled buildings and automobiles, in zones free of carrier mosquitoes and amply supplied with wine and cheese airlifted from France, the distance between Paris and Cayenne shortens; the effects of translation between them grow less clear. If the island mimics the mainland successfully, if Crusoe builds a little England - or France - is his task done? [...] To answer this question, let us return to a crucial turning point of Guyane's history: the aftermath of World War II and the period of formal empire. It was during this era that the natural, political, and moral space of French Guiana was neutralized through a combination of DDT spraying, departmentalization, and the final closing of the penal colony. In 1949, a former teacher [...] in Martinique published an overview of the new overseas departments and territories. His description of French Guiana includes a call to arms for its development, a development still conceived in terms of a need for [...] agriculture, and industry [...]. Gold mines aside, it seems that the method of painstaking labor is the only one really applicable at present. Incontestably, there is magnificent work to accomplish there, such as should tempt young men fond of broad horizons and adventure. The appeal is for an army of Crusoes, advancing ashore to improve their collective island. The questions of race and level of expertise filter through patterns of history and perceived practicality. But the call remains, the call of a wilderness inviting domestication.

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All text above by: Peter Redfield. Space in the Tropics: From Convicts to Rockets in French Guiana. 2000. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Sentinel-2C on its way to orbit

The third Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, Sentinel-2C, has launched aboard the final Vega rocket, flight VV24, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 5 September at 03:50 CEST (4 September 22:50 local time). 

Sentinel-2C will provide high-resolution data that is essential to Copernicus – the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme. Developed, built and operated by ESA, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission provides high-resolution optical imagery for a wide range of applications including land, water and atmospheric monitoring.

The mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites flying in the same orbit but 180° apart: Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B. Together, they cover all of Earth’s land and coastal waters every five days. Once Sentinel-2C is operational, it will replace its predecessor, Sentinel-2A, following a brief period of tandem observations. Sentinel-2D will eventually take over from Sentinel-2B.

Sentinel-2C was the last liftoff for the Vega rocket. After 12 years of service, Vega is being retired to make way for the upgraded Vega-C rocket.

CREDIT ESA

[trevlad-sounds]

Invisible Club 27

21.08.2024

🔊🫥♣️🔗🌳🔊

Intro 00:00 Dark Strands-The Last Ride 01:20 Misha Panfilov-Rhythm-O-Green 07:26 Lionmilk, Club Diego-22 22 11:46 Thought Bubble-Later 14:53 Beefus B-Lull-U-Bye 18:47 Etienne Jaumet, Fabrizio Rat-Soffiare Insieme 23:21 G303-we go back 30:49 Gong-My Guitar is a Spaceship 37:01 The Routes-Trans Europe Express 41:05 Ozric Tentacles-Burundi Spaceport 44:08 Lunar Cambridge-Massaging the Elderly 48:38 Karl Marx Stadt-Aiwa Na Dance 51:05 Kiasmos-Told 53:59 Mike Dickinson-Return To Love 59:28 UNKNOWN ME-Brazilian Space Agency 1:03:02 The Home Current-You Shine 1:06:47 Outro 1:11:34

[class42warship]

for those anticipating JUICE's launch in the coming days!

[saintjimmeh]

[beardedmrbean]

Europe's Ariane 6 rocket blasted off successfully for its maiden flight on Tuesday, a live video feed showed. The success of its three-hour flight is crucial for European countries, who hope to regain independent access to space more than a year after they retired their workhorse Ariane 5 rocket.

Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket launched for the first time on Tuesday, carrying with it the continent's hopes of regaining independent access to space.

The micro-satellites were delivered one hour and six minutes after the rocket blasted off from Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket's success marks a "historic day" for Europe, announced European Space Agency chief Josef Aschbacher.

The much-delayed inaugural flight of the European Space Agency's (ESA) most powerful rocket launched smoothly into clear skies at 4pm local time (1900 GMT) from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, an AFP correspondent observed.

Crews on the ground at the launch site, which is surrounded by jungle on the South American coast, applauded as the rocket soared into clear skies.

Ariane 6's first launch, which was originally planned for 2020, is hoped to bring an end to a difficult time for European space efforts.

Since the last flight of its workhorse predecessor, Ariane 5, a year ago, Europe has been unable to launch satellites or other missions into space without relying on rivals such as Elon Musk's US firm SpaceX.

ESA chief Josef Aschbacher said it was a "very important moment for Europe".

"We are re-establishing independent access to space for Europe," he said just before the launch. 

Earlier Tuesday, the giant metal structure housing the rocket called the "mobile gantry" was rolled away, unsheathing the 56-metre (183 feet) behemoth in light rain, an AFP journalist observed.

A 10am forecast said that "Weather is GO for fuelling", the ESA said on X.

This gave the green light for filling the rocket's tanks with the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will propel it into space.

From that point, any physical intervention would force the tanks to be emptied, requiring a 48-hour launch postponement, the ESA's launch base project manager Michel Rizzi said.

Rocket crisis 

Many will be nervously watching the launch, hoping it can bring an end to a difficult era for European space efforts.

Since the last flight of the rocket's workhorse predecessor, Ariane 5, a year ago, Europe has been unable to launch satellites or other missions into space without relying on rivals such as Elon Musk's US firm SpaceX.

Historically, nearly half of the first launches of new rockets have ended in failure.

That includes Ariane 5, which exploded moments after liftoff in 1996 – but out of its 117 launches over nearly 20 years, only one other flight would fail.

Everyone at the Kourou launch site, which is surrounded by jungle on the South American coast, is hoping history does not repeat for Ariane 6.

Tony dos Santos, the ESA's Kourou technical manager, said that teams on the ground would only be able to "breathe our first sigh of relief when the first satellites have been released" an hour and six minutes after liftoff.

The mission will be considered a success after the rocket's reusable upper stage splashes down into the Pacific Ocean.

Franck Saingou, Ariane 6 launch system architect, said there had been so many rehearsals that it all feels "routine – except this time it's the real thing".

Concealed in a nearby bunker, more than 200 experts in the launch centre will scrutinise the rocket until liftoff, ready to interrupt the countdown to solve any problems, he added.

They will be in constant contact with the Jupiter control room, the hub of communication between the teams – and data sent from the rocket.

A large number of armed forces will also watch over the launch, including three fighter jets deployed to deter any curious aircraft nearby.

Europe's 'return' to space

A successful flight would mark Europe's "return" to the space scene, said ESA space transportation director Toni Tolker-Nielsen.

Russia pulled its Soyuz rockets, long used for European launches at Kourou, after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Later year, Europe's Vega-C light launcher was grounded due to a launch failure. Delays to Ariane 6's first flight – originally scheduled for 2020 – further compounded the crisis.

Ariane 6 is scheduled for one more launch this year, six in 2025, then eight in 2026.

The launch of Ariane 6 is the first step towards "changing the future of the European space transportation ecosystem", ESA chief Josef Aschbacher said on X.

Gareth Dorrian, a space science researcher at the UK's University of Birmingham, told AFP that "the first launch of any new rocket is always fraught".

But Ariane 5 started with explosive failure and "went on to become one of the most successful launchers in history", he added.

[spaceexp]

Looks like 2023 will be the worst year for Europe by the number of orbital launches since the early 80's.

Delays with Ariane 6, grounding of Vega after the recent failures and Soyuz being no more an option, Europe's spaceport in Kourou will see fewer launches than New Zealand this year.

Chart >>

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 2.13 (after 1940)

1945 – World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army. 1945 – World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment. 1951 – Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the "high-water mark" of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences. 1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game. 1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls. 1955 – Twenty-nine people are killed when Sabena Flight 503 crashes into Monte Terminillo near Rieti, Italy. 1960 – With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons. 1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. 1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug. 1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain. 1975 – Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York. 1978 – Hilton bombing: A bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman. 1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 0.5-mile (0.80 km) long section of the Hood Canal Bridge. 1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky. 1983 – A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people. 1984 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1990 – German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany. 1991 – Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed. 1996 – The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre). 2001 – An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 944. 2004 – The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". 2007 – Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. 2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. 2010 – A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more. 2011 – For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855. 2012 – The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. 2021 – Former U.S. President Donald Trump is acquitted in his second impeachment trial. 2021 – A major winter storm causes blackouts and kills at least 82 people in Texas and northern Mexico.

[atomicjay42]

JUICE

JUICE

[littleapocalypsekitten]

I feel like I’m being told to spread the word that White Dwarf is a thing that exists.  (I think you can still find it on Youtube and the occasional Walmart bin.  I’ve only ever been able to re-watch it on Youtube).   I am having a devil of a time trying to get people to watch it, though.  When we first got Netflix, I tried looking it up on there and on some of the other streaming services we technically have access to, but nada.  I was trying to get *one* person to watch it with me.  No success.   This is THE most obscure thing that I like.  Once upon a time, in the mid-1990s, FOX ran a science fiction movie that was supposed to be a pilot for a TV show that was rejected.  The pilot was made into a Weekend Special Prime Time movie.  It went up against the Full House finale or something so very few people watched it... I saw adverts for it and it seemed like my kind of thing.  And it was.  Very, VERY weird.  Ahead of its time, too.  Criticisms of it in TV Guide reviews panned it for the “mix of science fiction and western.”   Guess what actually became popular later, with various anime that came out a few years later among the geek-set (*nodding to my Trigun fandom, and the more popular Cowboy Bebop) as well as the smash hit, Firefly.   So, the plot of White Dwarf...  A young Earth doctor goes to the small planet, Rusta, to fill out a “frontier / third-world country” work requirement in order to qualify to open his own fancy-pants practice.  Rusta is a planet orbiting a white dwarf star and it is tidally-locked, which means that one side is in perpetual light and one side is in perpetual darkness.  Climate is regulated by machines that mysterious alien precursors left behind.  The machines are starting to break down.   Rusta’s population as a few different alien / native species, but is mostly made up of humans who have adopted the veneer of various past cultures.  The Light Side is mostly old American West.  People live a frontier-western lifestyle with wells and buckboards and that type of thing.  There is one magistrate / noble in the Light Side who tries to recreate Ancient Rome at his estate, but it’s mostly Old West there.  On the Dark Side, people live like Medieval Europe, with castles and are ruled by a king.  It is constantly stormy there and they hunt these native black panthers that reportedly taste delicious.    There has been an ongoing war between the Light Side and the Dark Side, which is why the young doctor is there - this is supposed to be his frontier adventure treading sword and arrow wounds and so forth.  The doctor he replaces gets ambushed and murdered by Darksiders on the way to the spaceport. One of the opening scenes is the murder of a frontier-family by Darksider bandits on a raid, which is why their twin girls, who were at school at the time, live at the hospital the young doctor stints at, as well as this boy with a shapeshifting disease who was abandoned there by his parents.   The planet is called Rusta because its ocean has a high iron content, which makes the water look rusty, like blood.  There’s a native parasitic worm that once it gets inside you will eat your brain and possibly your soul.  If you look up this series on Youtube, if you don’t find the movie, you will probably find the scene with the Tissue Gloves (gloves used by doctors to do cut-less surgery, used in a scene to extract a worm.  It’s the one clip people kept around because it’s WEIRD).   This...movie... pretty much tossed EVERYTHING at the wall to try to see what sticks.  It’s BONKERS.  It pretty much was a TV pilot for a series that was going to reveal all of these cool ideas / amazing world over the course of a series, but didn’t get the chance.  This is sad for me, because I would have watched the HELL out of it.   And now I feel like “I’m the only one who knows what this thing even is, aren’t I?”  Although...yeah, I did find it on Youtube a while back.    Hey! I found it!  Go watch it!   White Dwarf   I wanna become a tumblr cult-movie cult leader!  

Sometimes a cult classic is a movie I love and get like 4 people to watch. I’m the cult leader