My French Guiana Adventure: Day 8

The trip back home from French Guiana was wild.

I always like to arrive at the airport super early. There are maybe six other passengers in the entire airport when I get there. I walk around the lobby to look at model rockets.

French Guiana is an international airport, but not a busy one. Today, there are just two flights out. The Island Hopper to Miami, and the direct flight to Orly. I want to reiterate that 60% of the cocaine in Mainland France transits through this airport. You do the math. They check my body and my luggage for cocaine residue.

I board the plane. Uneventful.

It is empty. Then, all of a sudden, a bunch of people get on all at once. Too many, in fact. 23 passengers on board do not have boarding passes and are not authorized to fly. It takes two hours to figure out who needs to be kicked off the plane. The crew is professional and memorable. I'm sure this has happened before. The male flight attendant reminds me of NBC News anchor Lester Holt. He is very serious, except I can see a seashell bracelet on his wrist. The female flight attendant is very rigid and very French. Her eyeglass frame is very artsy. One side is a rectangle, the other side is an oval. There is a third person. He is sitting at the front of coach. Blonde guy with wrap around shades that American cops wear. He is definitely law enforcement. During the two hour headcount fiasco, he is standing in the aisle looking towards the back of the plane, ready to throw down.

We are late for our connection on one of the islands. I do not get a chance to partake in another large shot of rum. All administrative hurdles are knocked down as everyone going to Miami is allowed to bypass security to get on the next plane. We run across the tiny airport. The catch is, we all have to stay together. But a French Karen insists that she leave us to smoke a cigarette. We say she can't. She walks away and smokes anyway. The entire second plane waits for her to finish smoking.

On the final leg, I decide to load up on the complimentary wine. We hit some serious turbulence, and this is the result.

Home sweet home.

As I land in Oakland, I get this text from my wife. The kids are at the drug store getting their passport photos taken. I hope with all my heart that they get to experience travel adventures like mine.

FIN.

My French Guiana adventure: Day 4

Today, I visit a spaceport! But first, breakfast. It seems like no brick and mortar eatery in French Guiana opens before 10:30. My tour is 40 minutes away from my hotel and it starts at 7am. Where am I going to eat?

Fortunately, I see a few blue collar guys hanging around this red Peugeot van in Kourou, so I make a u-turn and order a sandwich.

My 5 euro sandwich comes with beef, egg, and cheese. It's super filling and I cannot finish it before the tour, it's so big.

I had assumed the three-hour all-French tour was going to have us walk around a museum and peek into the command center. I had no idea we were going to be on a bus driving all over the spaceport! Our driver is Polynesian and our tour guide is super accommodating. Even though I am the only non-French speaker, she would come up to me after each stop and explain everything in English.

The facility is expansive. Because of French Guiana's proximity to the equator, it takes 25% less fuel to launch a rocket into space. The main rockets in use are Ariane 5 (soon to be 6) and Vega. Soyuz is no longer used since the Ukraine invasion. France and Russia have a long space friendship. The first French astronaut was sent up in a Soviet rocket in the 1980s. 

Security is tight. Army, navy, air force, police, Foreign Legion. They all protect the spaceport. 

The first stop is at an Ariane rocket launchpad. And our bus drives through it! There are two sets of parallel railroad tracks that are used to slowly transport the rocket from the hangar to the pad.

The rocket flames go down a hole, through that yellow tube, and away from the launchpad. That's a water tower next to the tube.

The rain stops briefly and we get out of the bus. This is a shot of the launchpad we just drove through.

The food at the spaceport is catered by Sodexo.

We then climb an elevated bunker where people can observe Vega launches.

The gray building in the background is the Soyuz launchpad. Supposedly, it looks totally different from the Ariane and Vegas launchpads because of the Soviets' different philosophy. We can't get closer because it has been completely shut down.

A sloth!

Here is the control room. VIPs and guests sit in comfortable lecture hall-style seats behind the windows.

There is a Lego model of the control room and lecture hall.

The four top VIPs, including a representative from France, sit here. She is the one who counts down from ten before blastoff. That orange phone is for emergencies, such as when an errant rocket needs to be destroyed.

I return to Cayenne, stock up on provisions for my upcoming road trips, and have dinner at a Creole-Haitian-Vietnamese place. It's just me and a table of 20 hot cops. I order a punch, thinking it's like sangria. It's actually a local specialty that you make yourself at your table. It's just rum, cane sugar syrup, and lime.

For my entree, I order stew. They have chicken, beef, fish, and pakira. Not knowing what pakira is, I order it. It's skunk pig.

Tomorrow, I drive 300 kilometers to the Suriname border.

Martian crater filled with water ice

More info here.

Spacecraft to change asteroid's tragectory

Science!

I just discovered Futurama

A friend just introduced me to the show. Better late than never! I am almost done with the first season. It's so creative, smart, and different.

Marshall Islands Space Fence

Space Fence is a US facility that tracks space debris. I found this video describing the system and another video showing the island where the facility is located.

Earth without water

 

China's four rocket launch sites

 

1. Jiuquan:

2. Xichang:

3. Taiyuan:

4. Wenchang:

Autonomous Martian helicopter and Finnish ferry

The future is here!

Mars in 4K

Wernher von Braun in his office

Tracking every piece of space junk in real time

Click here.

Visiting a Jaguar/Range Rover dealership

After losing a Bring A Trailer auction on a mint 2000 Toyota Land Cruiser, I went to the local Jaguar dealership to check out the electric I-Pace. I just sat in one. I did not drive it. The interior and exterior were sharp and there was plenty of trunk space. The salesman told me it has more room than the Range Rover Sport. The MSRP was $82,000. It is currently discounted at $72,000.

The very cordial and no-pressure salesman and I ended up talking about Range Rovers. He showed me the Virgin Galactic edition of the Range Rover. It was being detailed for a special customer. Everyone who bought a ticket for the first space flight is entitled to this Range Rover, if they pay $253,000 for it.

I stopped at the dealer to check out the I-Pace.

This is the Virgin Galactic edition of the RR. Only available to those who bought inaugural space flight. $253k. pic.twitter.com/XJvi7UYc6S

— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) September 11, 2019

If you have not done so, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter or to at least check out my timeline. I'm much more active there and there have been some fantastic interactions with fellow car nerds.

Soyuz rocket launch (French Guiana)

Who knew these were launched by the ESA?

How to point a space telescope

1. I had always assumed it was thrusters.
2. I don't know how I passed AP Physics. This went over my head.

Mission control during Challenger explosion

Explosion happens at 0:55. RIP.

Olympus Mons from space

Easter Island at night

Volcanic eruption from space

Antarctica