France has had spaceports at Hammaguir, Algeria, and Kourou, French Guiana.
On November 26, 1965, France became the third nation to launch an artificial moon to orbit above Earth. The satellite was named Asterix 1. It rode atop a rocket called Diamant in a launch from Hammaguir, Algeria.
Today, France is part of the European Space Agency, which fires space rockets from the Kourou space launch complex known as Centre Spatial Guyanais.
CSG is owned by the French national space agency, CNES. It is used by the European Space Agency (ESA) and its commercial space launch arm Arianespace to blast ESA's Ariane rockets to space.
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