Caribbean Beat — March/April 2018 (#150)

of research — they were also monitored
to help improve spacecraft design.
The Gaia, which cost 740 million
euros and has been called “the most
sophisticated space telescope ever built
by Europe,” was launched from Kourou in
2013. Its purpose is to map the Milky Way,
locating a billion stars, one per cent of the
number in the galaxy — more than have
been attempted before.
Over the next few years, the CSG will
be used to execute missions important
not only for Europe but for the rest of the
world. The JWST launch, the most highly
anticipated, is set for 2019. Before that, in
October, Kourou should see off Europe’s
first attempt to orbit Mercury. It’s the
planet closest to the sun, which makes
this a technologically challenging mission,
costing 1.65 billion euros. It’s taken
almost two decades to develop the two
spacecraft, called orbiters, that will take
seven years to get to their destination.
And a new launch site is being built
for a new rocket, the Ariane 6, which has
been designed with efficiency in mind,
to help combat competition from Elon
Musk’s Space X — which has shaken up
the space exploration industry by being
the first to reuse a rocket.
For all its importance to Europe’s
space ambitions, the centre has not
Decades in the making,
the James Webb Space
Telescope, due to be
launched from Kourou, will
change the way scientists
understand our galaxy
been doing nearly as much for French
Guiana. Space technology is developed
and constructed in Europe and North
America, then shipped to Guiana, so it’s
not adding to the skills development of
average Guianese.
French Guiana made international
headlines early last year, when a fiveweek
labour strike — which saw protesters
blocking roadways — forced the
delay of three space missions, costing
private companies and countries across
the world millions of dollars. Part of the
motivation for the strike was the feeling
that not enough labour union members
were being hired for the construction of
the new launch site.
In contrast to the value of the CSG,
French Guiana is the second poorest of
France’s overseas departments. About
twenty per cent of the residents are
unemployed, and close to forty per cent
live in poverty. The crime rate and cost
of living are high, and many households
don’t have electricity or running water.
The education system is undeveloped,
with many schools dilapidated, and half
of Guianese failing to earn a diploma.
There are only two main roads connecting
the main towns along the coast. In the
interior, people still travel by canoe.
A similar strike erupted in 2008 over
high fuel prices. It ended after eleven
days, when the government agreed to a
price reduction. Then in 2011 a rocket
launch was delayed for twenty-four hours
because of a strike by radar tracking
operators.
“We don’t have access to work,
medical care, or education,” said Gauthier
Horth, an opposition politician interviewed
by France 24 magazine during last
year’s strike. “We are not equal to other
French citizens.”
To resolve the strike, the French
government agreed in writing to invest
2.1 billion euros in health care, education,
business development, and crime reduction
in Guiana. This is in addition to a
promised 1.1 billion euros in aid.
It remains to be seen how much things
will improve in French Guiana, though
the protesters know the French government
has reason to take better care of the
welfare of Guianese: our future in space
might actually depend on it. n
WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 69