#Kourou

[cardinalbones]

(Hey, remember that post about cowboys and samurai existing at the same time?)

Starting off my return to this blog with a rough and sketchy design I drew in-between getting ready to move house. @strangegutz's Heartbreak Gulch art and ocs have been bringing me so much joy during a really stressful time so I wanted to join in and I thought it would be a fun time to dredge up an old overwatch oc I never ended up doing anything with!

Kōrō (or Kourou) is a sentient supercomputer made and once owned by Komainu Security. He was originally designed to manage security systems and was trusted with some of the companies biggest clients, which put him in the perfect position to carry out the biggest heist in the company's history. Really, the hardest thing to get out of there was, well, himself. Supercomputers aren't designed to be portable.

Kōrō currently has three bodies - his primary server, and two drone bodies which can walk and talk.

I'm not unhappy with this design but i'm also not happy with it. But that said, I was really drawing this to exorcise the idea and I'm happy I saw it through! If you don't follow Cricket please check out his blog, his art is so stylish and fun! Also the heartthrob with the nice hair belongs to him and you can see a lot more art of him over there!

[royalchildreneurope]

King Philippe of Belgium and Prince Gabriel of Belgium visit the Guiana Space Centre, where they were supposed to watch the launch of the Ariane 6, in Kourou, French Guiana -April 13th 2023.

[itscooltoskate]

Do we still remember this? Because I sure do

[domloisirsetculture]

[:fr]Le centre spatiale de Kourou[:en]L[:]

[:fr]   Bienvenue au centre spatiale de Kourou, emblème de la conquête du ciel du territoire français. Passionnée de fusée ou juste amoureux de l’expression “avoir la tête dans les nuages”, vous serez ravis de découvrir de découvrir les différentes étapes de la conception d’un projet dirigé vers les étoiles. Des explications avec un guide et une visite grandeur nature pour se rendre compte de…

[aresdifesa]

Il satellite climatico Copernicus Sentinel-2C di Airbus imbarcato alla volta dello spazioporto di Kourou nella Guyana francese Dopo il trasporto su strada da Airbus a Friedrichshafen a Brema il 2 luglio, il satellite Sentinel-2C costruito da Airbus, il terzo satellite Copernicus Sentinel-2, sta per essere spedito allo spazioporto europeo nella Guyana francese. Il container è stato caricato sull’iconica Canopée, la prima nave cargo assistita da vela progettata specificamente per trasportare i componenti del razzo Ariane 6 dai porti europei al Centro spaziale della Guyana a Kourou, dove arriverà tra circa due settimane. “Circa la metà dei dati utilizzati per valutare e monitorare l’impatto del cambiamento climatico sulla Terra è effettivamente fornita dai satelliti“, ha affermato Marc Steckling,

[surinamecentral]

French Guiana is an overseas department of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas. Bordered by Suriname to the west and Brazil to the east and south.  French Guiana is divided into 3 arrondissements( Saint-Lauren-du-Maroni, Saint Georges and Cayenne) and 22 communes. Maps of French Guiana showing the Arrondissement, and the 22 different Communes. they are each Highlighted in locator maps.

[sheltiechicago]

Kourou by Yoann JEZEQUEL Via Flickr: Kourou Guyane

[warningsine]

Faced with soaring global competition, the continent has unexpectedly found itself without a way to independently launch heavy missions into space due to delays to the next-generation Ariane 6 and Russia withdrawing its rockets.

The 117th and final flight of the Ariane 5 rocket took place around 2200 GMT on Wednesday from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The launch had been postponed twice. It was originally scheduled on June 16, but was called off because of problems with pyrotechnical lines in the rocket's booster, which have since been replaced.

Then Tuesday's launch was delayed by bad weather.

The Wednesday night flight went off without a hitch, watched by hundreds of spectators, including former French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, and was greeted with applause.

Marie-Anne Clair, the director of the Guiana Space Centre, told AFP that the final flight of Ariane 5 was "charged with emotion" for the teams in Kourou, where the rocket's launches have punctuated life for nearly three decades.

The final payload on Ariane 5 is a French military communications satellite and a German communications satellite.

The satellite "marks a major turning point for our armed forces: better performance and greater resistance to jamming," French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu tweeted.

Though it would become a reliable rocket, Ariane 5 had a difficult start. Its maiden flight exploded moments after liftoff in 1996. Its only other such failure came in 2002.

Herve Gilibert, an engineer who was working on Ariane 5 at the time, said the 2002 explosion was a "traumatic experience" that "left a deep impression on us".

But the rocket would embark on what was ultimately a long string of successful launches.

The initial stumbles had "the positive effect of keeping us absolutely vigilant," Gilibert said.

Webb and Juice

Ariane 5 earned such a reputation for reliability that NASA trusted it to launch the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope in late 2021.

The rocket's second-last launch was in April, blasting the European Space Agency's Juice spacecraft on its way to find out whether Jupiter's icy moons can host alien life.

Daniel Neuenschwander, the ESA's head of human and robotic exploration, said that in commercial terms, Ariane 5 had been "the spearhead of Europe's space activities".

The rocket was able to carry a far bigger load than its predecessor Ariane 4, giving Europe a competitive advantage and allowing the continent to establish itself in the communication satellite market.

While waiting for Ariane 6, whose first launch was initially scheduled for 2020, Europe had been relying on Russia's Soyuz rockets to get heavy-load missions into space.

But Russia withdrew space cooperation with Europe in response to sanctions imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The number of launches from Kourou fell from 15 in 2021 to six last year.

Another blow came in December, when the first commercial flight of the next-generation Vega C light launcher failed. Last week, another problem was detected in the Vega C's engine, likely pushing its return further into the future.

- 'Difficult times' -

The launcher market has been increasingly dominated by billionaire Elon Musk's US firm SpaceX, whose rockets are now blasting off once a week.

Lacking other options, the ESA was forced to turn to rival SpaceX's Falcon 9 for the successful launch of its Euclid space telescope on Saturday.

The ESA will also use a SpaceX rocket to launch satellites for the EarthCARE observation mission.

It remains unclear how the agency will launch the next round of satellites for the European Union's Galileo global navigation system.

At the Paris Air Show earlier this month, ESA chief Josef Aschbacher acknowledged that these were "difficult times," adding that everyone was "working intensely" to get Ariane 6 and Vega-C ready.

Ariane 6 was unveiled on a launch pad in Kourou earlier this month ahead of an ignition test of its Vulcain 2.1 rocket engine.

Because the new rocket requires less staffing and maintenance, 190 out of 1,600 positions are being cut at the Kourou spaceport.

[waywardluminarychaos]

The Guyanas (And Suriname) (Which Used to be Dutch Guyana)

Contrary to the rest of South America, independent travel through Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana is more rare, and there’s less information out there that is current and helpful. Chris and I (Deah) traveled through the region in March 2023. A fascinating mix of cultures, religions, and economics, these three countries are not for the faint of heart, but is quite interesting and worth…

[jakarnould]

Fusée Ariane, rêve d'enfant by Jak.

JAK ARNOULD ©ADAGP

[royalchildreneurope]

King Philippe of Belgium and Prince Gabriel of Belgium visit the Guiana Space Centre and the Ariane 6 launching site, in Kourou, French Guiana -April 12th 2023.

[itscooltoskate]

I just think they're neat 🚀

[domloisirsetculture]

[:fr]Les Îles du Salut, bagnes et biodiversité magnifique ![:]

[:fr]   Bienvenue au large de la commune de Kourou, sur les îles du Salut . Les Îles du Salut est un ensemble de trois îles : L’île de Saint-Joseph, qui servait de bagnes où les conditions extrêmes, surveillées en permanence par de nombreux gardes. L’île du Diable, non accessible à cause de la dangerosité des courants. Elle servait à la détention de détenus politiques comme le fut Alfred Dreyfus…

[floretspell]

daemonine, dimensenous, & kourous flags - flags for daemoniaku, dimensen, & freelekour gender qualities respectfully.

for cam. tagging @radiomogai, @en8y, & @dimensen.

[alpojones]

[niteshade925]

April 16-18, street food and home cooking:

An interesting regional specialty from Baoding called lürouhuoshao/驴肉火烧, otherwise known as "donkey burger". It's really good, a little like Xi'an's roujiamo, but with a baked crispy flatbread on the outside and braised donkey meat on the inside that is actually pretty tender, unlike what many have said.

More home cooking. Left is a humble stirfry of shrimp and a type of napa cabbage? (not sure) Right is kourou/扣肉, basically steamed pork belly