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The Spaceport of the European Space Agency (ESA) is located in France and South America! How is this possible? French Guinana has been a department (state) of France since 1946, and was a French colony off and on for nearly two centuries before that.
Kourou is much better suited as a rocket-launch site than is the European part of France; several geographic reasons for this are explained on the ESA web site. The launch site is in the news this week because a new kind of robotic cargo rocket will be launched from French Guiana to the International Space Station on Friday, March 23.
Of course, there is a lot more to French Guiana than just rocket ships, so the radio program The World took advantage of this week's news to explore some other aspects of its geography. Prince Koloni is not an actual prince, but he is actually French -- a musician from French Guiana who once worked on gold boats that pollute its rivers, and now uses music to help people learn to appreciate the beauty and importance of his country's forests. You can listen to his story and before watching his music video below.
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