Prologue: Hipparcos Launch

Abstract

In a clearing of the tropical coastal forests of French Guiana in South America sits the launch site from which Ariane flight 33 powered into space on the sultry night of 8 August 1989. Atop the sixty meter high rocket was one of the most advanced, delicate, and expensive instruments in physics and astronomy ever conceived. Designed, built and operated under the financial and technical might of the European Space Agency, the Hipparcos satellite was the culmination of more than twenty years of brainstorming by large scientific and technical teams, of political negotiations and financial lobbying, and of meticulous engineering design, construction and testing. Now it sat enclosed, high in its metallic eyrie, alone for the first time, and ready to ride into its place in history.

Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

Fred Hoyle (1915–2001)