The cost of shipping everything over there probably more than exceeds any launch savings by having a much lower latitude for the site.
SpaceX's cost advantage is mainly due to low wages and overworked enthusiastic young engineers. Road transport is a very minor contributor to the cost difference.
Some polar / slightly retrograde-orbit launches could be performed from Western Andalucia or Southern Portugal, but they would still have to dogleg quite a bit. If including insular territories, the Canaries Islands are more favorable, owing to the fact they're at around the same latitude as Cape Canaveral, just off the Moroccoan-Southern Saharan limit, with a clear ocean path to the North/South. In fact, a launch base exists there and is proposed for use by, for example, PLD Space.
Porto Santo eastbound launches would drop stages on Morocco and other inhabited regions.
It depends.Using a shipping calculator: From Marseilles, France to Degrad des Cannes, French Guiana. A 40x7x7 meters 30 ton piece of machinery. (Stage itself is ~12t ~30m long). As roll on roll off ~$150k, as "large object" ~$100k.AFAIK stages (including Soyus from Russia) are shipped to the port of Kourou directly on the Ro-Ro cargo ships MN COLIBRI and MN TOUCAN. Quite similar to the Delta Mainer ULA uses.Using a bespoke ship adds cost but gives independence and should make shipping hazardous materials easier. (Some solid stages and components are shipped loaded.) That the stages are shipped on a long known schedule helps. Chances are that the ships also transport other cargo when possible.So actual shipping cost are whatever Maritime Nantaise charges to operate the ships for Ariane Group.
Quote from: Chasm on 12/28/2017 12:16 pmIt depends.Using a shipping calculator: From Marseilles, France to Degrad des Cannes, French Guiana. A 40x7x7 meters 30 ton piece of machinery. (Stage itself is ~12t ~30m long). As roll on roll off ~$150k, as "large object" ~$100k.AFAIK stages (including Soyus from Russia) are shipped to the port of Kourou directly on the Ro-Ro cargo ships MN COLIBRI and MN TOUCAN. Quite similar to the Delta Mainer ULA uses.Using a bespoke ship adds cost but gives independence and should make shipping hazardous materials easier. (Some solid stages and components are shipped loaded.) That the stages are shipped on a long known schedule helps. Chances are that the ships also transport other cargo when possible.So actual shipping cost are whatever Maritime Nantaise charges to operate the ships for Ariane Group.Note. Core stages are much lighter than fueled and LO2 and LH2 is made on site. AFAIK only the nozzled end of the SRBs is shipped loaded with propellant. The rest of the segments for the SRB's are cast on site at Guiana. IOW they are shipped as empty metal cylinders.
Being near the equator is nice, but I think the primary benefit of the Guiana Space Centre is that it is a site that can easily launch to almost any orbit. Anything from SSO & Polar to equatorial, with nothing but a huge ocean under all ascent trajectories. No other launch site on Earth - except perhaps for Japan's Tanegashima - is as well located.If such a site was available in Europe, I don't think they would have bothered with Guiana.