Photographers Blog

Behind the scenes of a rocket launch

Reuters Staff

Oct 25, 2011 16:26 EDT

By Benoit Tessier

France has a launch pad 7,000 km away from Paris in French Guyana, an overseas region located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America.

For the first time in spatial history, two satellites from the Galileo navigation system program are going to be sent to space using the mythical Soyuz rocket which, during previous launches, sent the first satellite (Sputnik) and the first man (Yuri Garagarin) into space. The event is historic and shows the progress made in space exploration since the end of the cold war. The launch was delayed by three years from its original launch date and I was at last going to be the lucky one to cover the launch, designated “VS01”.

The only problem was that I had never set foot in French Guyana nor previously photographed a rocket launch!

Since its design back in the 50’s, Soyuz (“Union” in Russian) was built in the Samara space complex on the banks of the Volga. In order to get to French Guyana, all the various rocket parts were shipped from there. After 15 days of shipping, they eventually got to Pariacabo harbor, on the Kourou river where they were then carried by truck to the CSG (Guyana Space Center) launch site, specifically set up for Soyuz, located in Sinnamary where they were stocked. The Russian rocket could then be assembled in a big warehouse in order to be put upright.

There are only five hotels in Kourou and obviously they were all fully booked a long time in advance. I managed to find a room at a local’s house thanks to an advert placed on a local internet site. I set up my base camp there and emptied my luggage weighing 60 kilos after an eight hour flight.

Cricket, lovely cricket…

Andy Clark

Jul 4, 2008 06:23 EDT

Glancing up while sitting in the departure lounge of Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados my heart sank - oh crap! – joining me and a few other passengers in the waiting area was the Australian Cricket team.  Nothing personal, all good guys.   Some passengers, who were clearly supporters, reacted with muted excitement.  But it became painfully obvious to me, the team was joining us on our flight leaving shortly for St Vincent. I smiled an evil grin at the ignorant supporters in the lounge for they were unaware of the fact that the team’s presence on our plane meant only one thing and it wasn’t good… but I will come back to that.

I have been covering cricket in the West Indies for about 15 years now and consider myself a veteran of many a tour through the islands.  When I tell friends and colleagues that I am off to the Caribbean for cricket, I am constantly met comments of the, ”wow nice!!” or “man another tough assignment in paradise”, kind. I admit, it sounds pretty good to me too, but I know better… I have been there, got the T-shirt and worn it out. 

Most people when they travel down to the Windies for a holiday fly on a major airline, unpack, sit in the sun, drink too much, burn their skin the colour of a ripe tomato, pack their bags, get back on that big jet and go home… no fuss no muss. I and my photo colleagues also board that big jet but remain behind to move from island to island for the next four to eight weeks… well read on…

Now, before I give the impression I am about to regale you with nothing but tales of woe, let me say that covering cricket in the Windies is usually a lot of fun.  But I am biased as I love the sport and love covering it. West Indians love their cricket so much that some of the islands often declare a national holiday to allow fans to attend a One-Day International.

The atmosphere can be a carnival-like with loud Caribbean music between overs, especially the catchy favourites like the cricket tune “Rally Round the West Indies” and the various Bob Marley tunes.  The fans are emotional and not shy about shouting advice at the West Indies side encouraging them to “lash” the ball and erupting with joy as a well hit shot drives to the boundary or howls of mocking laughter if the opposing side appeals for LBW or their batsman ducks a bouncer.