French Guiana
Overseas department and region of France in South America
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2025 | An Engins de Débarquement Amphibie – Standards (EDA-S) landing craft is scheduled to be delivered to naval forces in French Guiana to support coastal and riverine operations. |
2025 | PLD Space is likely to be the first company to use the reactivated launch pad. |
January 2025 | INSEE estimated the population of French Guiana at 292,354, over 10 times the population in 1954, though lower than previous population forecasts. |
September 2024 | MaiaSpace was selected to use the launch pad for their Maia rocket, with plans to invest tens of millions of euros and aim for an inaugural launch in late 2025. |
July 9 2024 | First flight of the Ariane 6 was conducted from the ELA-4 launch facility. |
April 2024 | CNES issued a call to take over the launch pad. |
July 5 2023 | ELA-3 facility ceases active operations after 27 years of launching Ariane 5 rockets. |
2022 | The Maritime Gendarmerie deployed the patrol boat Charente to replace the previous boat Mahury, which was no longer considered serviceable. |
October 2022 | Saint-Georges became one of the three sub-prefectures of French Guiana and was designated as the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Georges. |
February 26 2022 | Roscosmos suspended operations at ELS launch site in response to international sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War. |
2021 | Construction began on a combined power plant featuring 55 MW solar capacity, 3 MW hydrogen fuel cell, 20 MW/38 MWh battery, and 16 MW hydrogen electrolyser with 88 MWh storage, representing a significant infrastructure development in French Guiana's energy sector. |
2021 | Tour of Guiana was again canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
2021 | A census was conducted in French Guiana, documenting population statistics for major metropolitan areas including Cayenne (151,103 residents), Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (50,250 residents), and Kourou (27,442 residents). |
September 28 2021 | The new ELA-4 launch facility was officially inaugurated. |
2020 | Tour of Guiana could not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
2020 | Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth became the first woman to be elected to the French Guiana Senate. |
2020 | French Guiana experiences a moderate recession of -2.7% due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
June 2020 | By the end of June, more than 1% of French Guianese tested positive for COVID-19. |
2019 | Census data shows an increase in immigrant population to 30.5%, with ongoing migration from Syria, Cuba, Yemen, and Palestine seeking refuge in French Guiana as a gateway to Europe. |
2019 | A census was conducted in French Guiana revealing the demographic composition, including that 56.5% of inhabitants were born in French Guiana, 8.9% in Metropolitan France, 2.8% in French Caribbean departments, and 31.5% in foreign countries. |
2019 | Unemployment declines to 19.3%, and the GDP per capita at market exchange rates is US$17,375, which is 42.3% of metropolitan France's average. |
2019 | Civil engineering works on the flame trench and other buildings at ELA-4 launch site were completed. |
2019 | Launch pad reactivation began, with plans to rename it ELM (Ensemble de Lancement Multilanceurs) to support multiple microlauncher companies. |
2018 | The total fertility rate settled at 3.82, maintaining a significantly higher reproductive rate compared to metropolitan France's 1.84. |
2017 | French Guiana experienced a fertility rate peak at 3.93, highlighting the continued high population growth trend. |
2017 | Significant social unrest occurred, leading to an economic recession in 2018 and triggering increased emigration of young people to Metropolitan France. |
2017 | Social unrest occurs, leading to almost no economic growth for the year. |
May 2017 | Delayed satellites from the March protests were finally launched after negotiations between French government and Guianese protesters. |
April 24 2017 | The Guiana Space Centre resumed operations after the French government authorized an emergency relief plan of up to 2.1 billion euros. |
April 4 2017 | The Guiana Space Centre was occupied by 30 labour unions and indigenous peoples leaders during social unrest in French Guiana. |
March 2017 | Strikes and protests began in March, highlighting infrastructural issues and social inequities in French Guiana, involving 30 labour unions and spreading across the country. |
March 21 2017 | An Ariane 5 rocket launch carrying a Brazilian and South Korean satellite was prevented due to strikes and protests by local workers and the Collective of 500 Brothers blocking the Guiana Space Centre. |
2016 | Unemployment reaches a peak of 23.0%, highlighting economic difficulties in the region. |
June 2016 | Civil engineering works on the flame trench and other buildings at ELA-4 launch site began in the summer. |
January 2016 | Earthworks for the ELA-4 launch site were completed at the start of the year. |
2015 | French Guiana experiences economic challenges, with GDP per capita declining relative to metropolitan France. |
June 2015 | Earthworks began on the 150-hectare ELA-4 launch site at the end of June. |
2014 | Space sector reduced to 15% of French Guiana's GDP, employing 4,620 people and accounting for nearly 10% of salaried jobs in the overseas department. |
2013 | Census data reveals 29.2% of French Guiana's population are immigrants, with a significant portion arriving from South American, Caribbean, and Middle Eastern countries. |
April 2013 | LFG became a full member of CONCACAF. |
September 26 2012 | French Guiana Football Team achieved its biggest victory, defeating St. Pierre and Miquelon 11-1. |
February 13 2012 | First launch of the Vega rocket from the refurbished ELV launch complex took place. |
2011 | Rice production near Mana almost completely disappears due to marine erosion and new EU plant health regulations. |
December 17 2011 | Second Soyuz launch at the Guiana Space Centre, carrying the French space agency's Pleiades 1 Earth imaging satellite, four ELISA electronic intelligence satellites, and the SSOT remote sensing satellite for the Chilean military. |
October 21 2011 | First Soyuz rocket launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, carrying two Galileo IOV-1 and IOV-2 satellites. |
September 2011 | The service tower at the ELA-2 launch pad was demolished using explosives, marking the end of the Ariane 4 launch infrastructure. |
May 21 2011 | An Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle launched the ST-2 Satellite, which was twice as powerful as Singtel's first satellite ST-1, providing 20% more transponder capacity and wider coverage across the Middle East, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. |
2010 | Operation Harpie Reinforce was launched by the French government to combat illegal gold mining in French Guiana. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Saint-Georges, French Guiana, Guiana Space Centre, University of the French Antilles, French Guiana & Economy of French Guiana, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.