Kourou, French Guiana
After 1051 nautical miles from Fortaleza, Brazil, our laboratory vessel arrived in Kourou, French Guiana, for the 84th stopover of her Odyssey!
Coming from: Fortaleza, Brazil
Weather conditions: Windy
Time of arrival: 4:00 PM
Travelled distance: 1051 nautical miles
A successful round-the-world journey
3 years ago, our laboratory vessel made her 61st stopover in Kourou! Today, the arrival of our catamaran in French Guiana marks the 84th stop of her Odyssey and the completion of a geographical round-the-world journey!
To relive Energy Observer's 61st stopover in French Guiana in 2020, click here!
Reunion with Air Liquide
This stopover enabled us to meet with our partner Air Liquide, who is involved in Guiana's space base activities. It was also an opportunity for the local teams to come on board and discover our onboard technologies! Air Liquide produces the propellants (fuel and oxidizer) used by the Ariane rocket. In particular, they produce liquid hydrogen to power the Vulcain engine located under the launcher's main body.
EO Concept comes on board!
Didier Bouix, Nicolas Berthelot and Timothée Drugeot from the EO Concept team also came aboard Energy Observer during their visit to French Guiana. It was an opportunity for Didier and Nicolas to sail the boat again, as they were both part of the team that designed our laboratory vessel over seven years ago. Didier supervised the entire hydrogen chain on our catamaran while Nicolas contributed as a naval architect.
It was a good opportunity for the EO Concept team to visit Air Liquide's hydrogen liquefaction site, which supplies the fuel for Ariane launchers.
A very insightful discovery for the three men who are actively working on the design of the future Energy Observer 2 container ship, which will be powered... by liquid hydrogen!
“For its autonomy, our future container ship will carry as much liquid hydrogen as two Ariane 5 launchers.”
See you in Martinique for our next stopover!