France in spaceIn 1965, 14:47 GMT, France launched its first satellite, Astrix-1 onboard a Diamant rocket from Hammaguir, Algeria, becoming the third country in space (after the USSR Sputnik on 4 Oct 1957), and the U.S. Explorer-I on 31 Jan 1958). With a 42-kg payload, the French launch was a test of the Diamant launching vehicle for the first time. Before it lost the colony, the French conducted nuclear, missile, and space launch tests from the Hammaguir site in the Sahara desert near the Moroccan border. The fourth nation to put a satellite in orbit was Japan (Osumi 5, 11 Feb 1970) followed by China (China 1, 24 Apr1970) and the U.K. (Prospero, 28 Oct 1972) |
