Why the CSG is unique in the world
Most rocket launch sites around the world are closed to the public — that goes without saying for security reasons. The CSG is the exception. Since 1968, the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou has welcomed visitors to the heart of its active facilities, where rockets and satellites are genuinely being prepared for their next missions.
This is not a reconstructed museum or a space-themed attraction. It is the real site, with real buildings, real launch pads, and real engineers at work. The visit takes place in parallel with actual mission preparations — and that proximity to live space activity is what makes the experience irreplaceable.
CSG at a glance
The guided tour: what you actually see
The main visit is a 3-hour bus tour of the site with a specialist guide. Key stops include the Jupiter control room — where you see the actual mission control posts through a glass partition — and the Ariane 6 and Vega-C launch pads up close.
The scale is staggering. The infrastructure required to lift a rocket into orbit — the fuel systems, the water deluge towers, the tracking antennae — becomes physically real in a way that no documentary or website can convey.
Guided tour — practical info 2026
Important: guided tours of the facilities are suspended the day before, the day of, and the day after a launch for security reasons. If you are planning your visit around a launch, tour the installations in the days before — then watch the launch from the public observation areas on launch day.
Watching a launch: the experience of a lifetime
Watching an Ariane rocket lift off is an experience that resists adequate description in advance. The ground vibrates. A low rumble builds for several seconds before the flame is even visible. Then the rocket tears free — slowly at first, then faster and faster — and disappears into the sky within minutes, leaving a motionless vapour trail in the tropical air.
Everyone who has witnessed it says the same thing: you think you know what to expect. You have seen the videos, the images. And yet the physical sensation is something entirely different.
How to watch a launch
Guyaspace Experience: the new immersive museum
Reopened in July 2024 after a full redesign, Guyaspace Experience has transformed the former Space Museum into a fully immersive attraction. Put yourself in the shoes of a technician, an engineer, or even a satellite. Planetarium, full-scale models, video archives of major launches. Allow 90 minutes minimum.
Guyaspace Experience
What else to do around Kourou
Kourou is not just about the space centre. The Îles du Salut — the former penal islands — are 45 minutes by catamaran from the port. Montagne des Singes offers a panoramic view of the launch pads and is an ideal vantage point on launch days. The Kourou River offers pirogue excursions into the rainforest within minutes of the city centre.
Ideal 2-day programme in Kourou:
Day 1: CSG guided tour (8am) + Guyaspace Experience in the afternoon
Day 2: Catamaran to the Îles du Salut — full day or overnight on the island
This programme is included in our Heart of French Guiana package.
Space, islands, rainforest:
all in one trip.
Our Heart of French Guiana package includes the CSG guided tour, Guyaspace Experience, the Îles du Salut and the Kaw Marshes — the best first contact with French Guiana.