Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana

In 1964 the French Government chose Kourou in French Guiana as a base from which to launch its satellites. When the European Space Agency (ESA) came into being in 1975, the French Government offered to share its Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) with ESA. For its part, ESA approved funding to upgrade the launch facilities at the CSG to prepare the Spaceport for the Ariane launchers under development.

By virtue of its geographical position, the Kourou space flight centre has several major advantages for the launch of satellites. French Guiana is scarcely populated and 90% of the country is covered by equatorial forests. In addition there is no risk of cyclones or earthquakes. With a clear trajectory over the oceans towards the north and east, the Kourou site is in an ideal place to launch polar satellites in a northerly direction, and geostationary satellites in the favourable easterly direction. The location has particular advantages with regard to the launch of geostationary satellites. The satellites can be launched towards the east, where the launch impulse is aided by the spin of the Earth. As the site is so close to the equator, this assistance is close to the maximum possible. Furthermore, at only 5°N latitude, a launch from the Kourou site can place satellites directly into an equatorial orbit with a minimal use of the fuel which would be needed to reduce the inclination of the orbital plane from a launch in higher latitudes. As less fuel is used, these advantages translate into additional lifetime in orbit.

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Baikonur Cosmodrome was built in 1955, on the wind-swept steppes of inner Kazakhstan, which was then a part of the Soviet Union. After 50 years, it is still the world’s largest space launch facility. Baikonur covers 7360 square kilometres and extends 75 kilometres from north to south and 90 kilometres from east to west. The base contains dozens of launch pads, five tracking-control centres, nine tracking stations and a 1500-kilometre rocket test range.

The first satellite to orbit the Earth was launched from Baikonur, and it was also from here that Yuri Gagarin was launched into space in 1961, becoming the first man to orbit the Earth. Baikonur also sent the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963, and was used for missions that built and maintained the space station Mir in the 1980s and 1990s.

Baikonur has been used for all Soviet and CIS manned launches and for most lunar, planetary and geostationary orbit launches. Since 1993 Russia has rented Baikonur from Kazakhstan.

Vandenberg began as the US Army's Camp Cooke before World War II, when the US Army purchased approximately 86,000 acres of land in March 1941. With its flat plateau, surrounding hills, numerous nearby canyons, and relative remoteness from populated areas, it was a favourable location for armoured division training. Camp Cooke was deactivated as a training site in 1953, and renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1958. In 1959 Vandenberg Air Force Base became operational.

The site’s remoteness, along with its location at a spot on the rugged Central California coast where the shoreline runs east and west, was deemed an ideal location for launching missiles and satellites. Rockets launched from Vandenberg can fly nearly due south and not cross over land until they reach Antarctica. This is ideal for launches to polar orbit, because spent rocket stages or failed launches pose no threat to inhabited land. Vandenberg has therefore been the launch site for numerous reconnaissance and Earth observation satellites that require polar orbits. On 28 February 1959, the world's first polar orbiting satellite, Discoverer I, lifted into space from a Thor/Agena booster combination from Vandenberg Air Force Base.