Sunday, February 27, 2005

From penal colony to spaceport

In just over a week I will be on my way to the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. It will be sticky and hot, and as a precaution I am taking anti-malarials, even though the coastal strip is fairly safe.

As a big fan of Papillon, I am looking forward to visiting Devil's Island, decommissioned as a penal settlement in 1951. But there will also be all the rockets a girl could wish for. I hope I will get to see the Blue Streak being used as a chicken coop by a Kourou farmer!

My Guianese adventures will be published in the magazine Sky and Space when I return to Australia in April. After Kourou, my space researches continue in Paris.