France runs Europe’s working spaceport and has told the public since 2022 that small rockets would fly from Kourou. None has.
6
orbital launches from this country in 2026, to 2 October
0
orbits reached by its launch firms, ever
€15.0m
public money to its launch firms, not counting contracts for future launches
2
launch firms we cover
Checked 7 October 2026
Launch firms
Latitude
- Status
- no orbital flight
- Public money
- €15.0m
- Private money
- €38.2m
- Promised
- a first flight to orbit in 2024, said in December 2020
- Delivered
- no flight; the first is now planned from Etlaq in Oman, late 2027
MaiaSpace
- Status
- no orbital flight
- Public money
- none on record
- Private money
- €83.4m
- Promised
- a first flight to orbit by the end of 2025, said in June 2023
- Delivered
- no flight; the target is now the second half of 2027
Launch sites
6 orbital launches from the Guiana Space Centre in 2026 to 2 October, all of them Ariane 6 or Vega C.
Guiana Space Centre
- What happened
- Ariane 6 and Vega C fly from here.
Small-launcher pad on the old Diamant site, Kourou
- What happened
- The small-launcher pad on the old Diamant site was promised a first launch for 2024, then 2025, then 2026. PLD Space now says the first half of 2027.
France has the only European site that puts things in orbit regularly, and not one of the small rockets promised for it has flown.
Money from company accounts, public registers and ESA contracts; promises from the statements on our company and spaceport pages; launch counts from Jonathan McDowell’s launch log of 7 October 2026. Every figure is on the page it comes from.