S/V Mojombo: How We Had a Blast

At the moment we are in French Guiana. We very luckily arrived 2 days before a launch of a ... space rocket. What you might be asking is why there is rocket in French Guiana. The reason is that the Guiana Space Centre(CSG) is here. In this blog entry I will tell you about the, Ariane 5 rocket, an Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and the launch. What we didn’t realize was how special this mission was. You know, I hope, about the International Space Station where four guys live? So every now and then these guys run out of strawberries and once a year they send some more up in an ATV.

The Ariane 5
The worlds heavy lift champion this top of the line rocket is assembled and launched from CSG. Ariane 5 can put ten metric tons of stuff into geostationary orbit or twenty tons of stuff into medium or low earth orbit, which is where the International Space Station is. The Ariane 5 is more importantly is the rocket that puts the ATV into space. The Ariane is the biggest rocket launched from the CSG. It is also the rocket that we saw launched.

The ATV
So the ATV is the transfer vehicles for supplies between earth and the International Space Station. It is loaded up with food water and air before departure The ATV goes up into space, it docks with the space station and they take every think off before loading it back up with all there junk, including their waster water, sewage and garbage. They then send it back down to earth. But the ATV is not made to renter the atmosphere so what happens? Well it’s rather simple you see it just burns up along with all the junk.

A model of the ATV. At the front of the ATV you can see storage for food and at the back storage for water and air.

The Launch
Liam and Vanessa, whom we met when we were walking around town, very kindly offered to drive us out to a hill. The hill, other wise known as Carapa, is an one of five official viewing sites where you can see the rocket go up in smoke. Having lucked out of a long walk our ride picked us at 5:30pm. Off we went with Nina on Mum’s lap and Mum telling Nina off for getting so big. Arriving at the gate we were given tickets to the launch. We were also checked out by the guys with metal detectors who confiscated Dads bottle of rum (Dad joked with the guards when we got the bottle back that it was emptier). We then walked up the hill to viewing area.

We were twelve kilometers from the launch pad. Just out side the safety perimeter. We had arrived an hour early so as to securer a seat. We had stocked up with French goodies so we set to work demolishing wheels of camembert, cans of pate, olives, chips and bagets.

Five minutes to take off the crowd fell silent. All of a sudden an orange glow appeared around the base of the rocket then it was off. Foot ball stadium sized clouds of exhaust gases billowed out around the rocket. As the rocket arced across the sky a sudden billow of gas was seen then two pin prick sized light were seen falling towards the ocean! The booster rockets had fallen off. After this we lost sight of the rocket. The funny thing was that a few seconds after lift of we could here this deep rumbling that seemed to come from all around you and fill your stomach. As suddenly as it started it finished.