Bernie Badger: Spaceport in French Guiana a lot like KSC

Cape Canaveral is suitable as a location for a spaceport because of two major geographical advantages over other sites in the continental United States:

It is about as close to the equator as practical, so the Earth's spin imparts extra velocity to the rockets when launched eastward, and it has uninhabited territory (in this case, open sea) to the east, which allows the lower stages of rockets to safely splashdown and ensures that debris from launch failures won't land on anyone.

The Space Coast's counterpart for the French and European space programs is the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana. Operational since 1968, it has similar geographical advantages. It is even closer to the equator and also has open sea to the east.

Even closer to the CSG than the town of Kourou, is the French penal colony of the Îles du Salut island group. For 101 years, from 1852 to 1953, it was in use.

The third largest of the Îles du Salut is Devil's Island, famous for its use for internal exile of political prisoners. This is where political prisoner Captain Alfred Dreyfus was held. It was also notorious that very few prisoners managed to escape. The book Papillon is the, probably fictionalized, story of the escape of Henri Charrière and Sylvain.

Restored buildings on the islands are classified as historical monuments. The islands now receive more than 50,000 tourists each year. Nonetheless, the islands are under the trajectory of rockets launched from the CSG, and must be evacuated during each launch.

At 9:30 tonight, EDT you can see a satellite which is the Ariane 4 rocket that was launched May 3, 2002 from the CSG on an Ariane 4 flight V151 carrying SPOT 5 as the primary payload. Two battery-powered picosats, designed and built by AMSAT-France remained fastened to the Ariane 4 third stage with an orbit of 800 kilometers. They only transmitted for a few weeks, but they confer the designation of IDEFIX/ARIANE 42P the status of a defunct satellite, rather than just an old rocket body.

Look for the satellite to suddenly appear in the SSE one third of the way up the sky. It is a ways below the base of Crater, The Cup. Crater and Corvus are two small constellations astride the back of Hydra, the great Sea Snake that wriggles from the SE horizon all the way to Canis Minor, where the bright star Procyon lies. When the satellite appears it will be nearly magnitude 3, which is pretty bright.

After making its appearance, the satellite rises straight up from our point of view to the head of Leo, The Lion. Leo's regal mane is also known as the asterism, The Sickle. You can find the Sickle very high in the sky, right between the bright planets Jupiter (to the WNW) and Mars (to the ESE). It passes closest to Gamma Leonis at 9:32 p.m. From there the satellite descends in a northerly direction, fading and dimming all the while. It will probably fade from view before reaching the horizon.

Mr. Badger is Project Coordinator at the Eastern Florida State College Planetarium in Cocoa. Send questions, suggestions, or comments to badgerb@easternflorida.edu.

At the planetarium

FRIDAY

7 p.m. Amazing Universe

8:15 p.m. The Living Sea

9 p.m. Led Zeppelin

SATURDAY

7 p.m. Led Zeppelin

8:15 p.m. Solar Max

9 p.m. Pink Floyd (double album)

WEDNESDAY

2 p.m. The Planets

3:15 p.m. Mysteries of Egypt

"The Wall" is a double-album show, letting out at about 10:20 p.m. The observatory will be open for a while after the show. This is the best time available at the observatory to see Mars, as it will be higher in altitude, giving a clearer view.

To see the full planetarium show schedule for April, access the online calendar at www.calendarwiz.com/planetarium. You may call the box office at (321) 433-7373 to hear our show schedule and prices. More information about the Planetarium may be found at www.easternflorida.edu/planet.