Kourou French Guiana 05:08.900 052:39.000W
Suzie Too - Western Caribbean
David & Suzanne Chappell
Tue 27 Apr 2010 11:07
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Just a quick note to say the last 3 messages have
been sat in my Outbox for about 1 month, waiting for a decent connection - so
they are not in sequence - but I hope you enjoy them - anyway back on track
now.
So today was an early start to ride with John to
work at the ESA at 0715, then wait until the tour started at 0815 - he is the
only Brit at the centre, the UK does not contribute to Arianne. Apparently we
are starting our own Space Program - how bloody
stupid the last time the UK launched something that idiot Professor Colin
Magelwurzel mixed up feet and metres and smacked the thing into Mars - for
Christ's sake and made us all look real plonkers!
Arianne is the largest launch vehicle in the world,
currently with a 10 tonnes payload, increasing to 12 tonnes next year and with a
Russian Soyouz program at 3 tonnes and a Vega program at 1.5 tonnes all on the
same site, so where is the gap in the market for the UK? All the rocket section
are made in Europe and flown by plane to Cayenne then by truck to the launch
site, all the satellites are assembled by the customer in the various countries
and then brought for assembly to the launch vehicle. A typical satellite weighs
around 5 tonnes so Ariannne can lift 2, halving the launch cost for the customer
- they also have the most reliable launches and can get the satellite to within
just a few metres of its geostationary position, meaning the life of the
satellite is longer because it uses less fuel for final manoeuvring.
Since Sputnik over 4,000 satellites have been
launched, but because of their lifespan there are now about 400 in
orbit.
We have just heard that African Seawing, who went
to straight to Paramaribo has left after one night, cos it was awful with no
yacht facilities and a fierce current in the river. He is now sailing for a haul
out in Grenada, cos the tree he hit coming out of the Amazon has damaged a
rudder and it has dropped 10cm and is letting water. So we will probably sail
the 650 or 700 miles straight to Tobago or Trinidad later this week and miss
Surinam.
At the moment it is RIDS Part II cos most boats are
here and we are all anchored, meeting in restaurants - eaing bush meat, see the
menu image below - and going to a Jazz evening tonight
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