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Rocket Science

30 images Created 20 Nov 2008

"The incongruous nature of launching rockets laden with satellites from the jungle of colonial French Guiana."

These 30 images are from the book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton, published by Penguin in April 2009.

This gallery is part of a short series relating to this book, though their titles have in some cases been adapted for this archive. They are viewed here as a showcase but will be released for sale on the 1st April 2009 at Photoshelter and Alamy or exclusively at CORBIS and therefore each file has its own restrictions which can be read within its metadata.

The book pictures are reproduced in black and white but all appear here in colour.

A blog story about the project's photography is at:
http://wp.me/p3fbj-4j

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  • Wearing a company wastecoat and blue rubber gloves, the uniform of a Holiday Inn employee, a man of Black ethnicity bends forward to wipe the glass revolving doors at the entrance of this hotel in Paris. Nearby is the man's trolley containing janitorial cleaning products such as a mop and bucket, towels, cloth rolls, atomiser sprays, detergents and tissues needed to maintain the high standards of this motel chain. Coincidentally, a customer is also bending down to re-arrange something in her baggage and leaning at the same angle as the cleaner.
    esa_guiana02113-08-2007.jpg
  • Parked on the apron at Paris Orly Airport, a lone pilot of the French national airline Air France, leans out of his right-hand seat's cockpit window of his Boeing 777-328/ER aircraft (F-GSQT). It is a bright morning at this international hub for Air France and without help from ground staff, the silver-haired gentleman who may be the captain and commander of the aircraft (because of age and seat position) has decided to get on with the job of cleaning his window himself much like a driver wiping away flies from his car windscreen. Here however, this chore being performed approximately six meters off the ground so safety is vital - just as a clear front view for the flight-deck crew before their flight. Attached to the plane is the mobile walkway, the air bridge, that awaits boarding passengers but no 'ramp agent' is below.  .
    esa_guiana02513-08-2007.jpg
  • TV screens at Jupiter Control Center show launch readiness status of a European Space Agency's Ariane satellite rocket
    esa_guiana04714-08-2007.jpg
  • European Space Agency technicians at Ariane launch control monitor rocket systems hours before a satellite launch
    esa_guiana07514-08-2007.jpg
  • Visitors stand near a weathered launchpad at the European Space Agency's Kourou space station in French Guiana.  .
    esa_guiana09314-08-2007.jpg
  • Old weathered loudspeakers stand overlooking a old launchpad at the European Space Agency's Kourou facility in French Guiana.
    esa_guiana10214-08-2007.jpg
  • Writer Alain de Botton stands by a mural of a launching Roskosmos Soyuz rocket while researching his book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (Hamish Hamilton, UK 2009) at ESA's Kourou Spaceport
    esa_guiana11114-08-2007.jpg
  • An Ariane 5 rocket booster in Europropulsion's Booster Integration Building at European Space Agency, Kourou..
    esa_guiana18915-08-2007.jpg
  • Ariane 5 rocket booster cradle in Europropulsion's Booster Integration Building at European Space Agency, Kourou..
    esa_guiana22215-08-2007.jpg
  • Striped covers for electrical cables turn a right-angle turn to the left towards power cabinets  which are numbered 1 to 6 at the European Space Agency's Europropulsion Ariane 5 rocket Booster Integration Building. Railings ensure that pedestrians keep to the  walkways without endangering health and safety, according to EU law. Elsewhere in this giant building the boosters that propel ESA rockets into space are integrated with their payloads.  ...
    esa_guiana22415-08-2007.jpg
  • A man of Creole descent relaxes late-afternoon in front of a mural showing a scene of Parisian life, in colonial Kourou.
    esa_guiana26316-08-2007.jpg
  • European mother and child board car near traditional ramshackle Creole house in town of Sinnamary, French Guiana.
    esa_guiana32417-08-2007.jpg
  • Taking telephone orders near rocket painting at the Délice restaurant in the old quarter of Kourou, French Guiana..
    esa_guiana25016-08-2007.jpg
  • Sign post for a desolate Place Balourous on wasteland scrub near Kourou River, in colonial quarter of Kourou, French Guiana.
    esa_guiana21016-08-2007.jpg
  • Peeling mural of golf club trolley on the side of green container parked near the European Space Agency's Kourou Spaceport.
    esa_guiana25216-08-2007.jpg
  • Odd wall advert for pet grooming and hairdressing in impoverished new quarter of Kourou in colonial French Guiana
    esa_guiana25516-08-2007.jpg
  • Holding her doll, a young white child wearing a pink dress explores the Délice Restaurant in old Kourou, French Guiana, South America. The daughter of French parents who are in this French-administered colony in connection with the nearby European Space Agency (ESA). The girl is confident enough to leave her parents' side and appear in an open doorway. On the other side of the wall is a giant brightly-painted mural depicting a more traditional side of life in this tropical country. The word Guyane is the French name for Guiana. A female in national costume stands near a palm tree, local produce and vegetation. Meanwhile a dark-skinned Creole man sits on a stool smoking a cigarette chatting to unseen friends - a barfly occupying his usual lunchtime seat. It is a scene of internationalism, cross-culture and youth versus old age. .
    esa_guiana20415-08-2007.jpg
  • Member country flags on Ariane 5 rocket booster in Europropulsion's Booster Integration Building at European Space Agency..
    esa_guiana19715-08-2007.jpg
  • Sterile technicians construct European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Jules Verne module at Kourou Spaceport.
    esa_guiana30516-08-2007.jpg
  • Sterile technicians construct European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Jules Verne module at Kourou Spaceport.
    esa_guiana27016-08-2007.jpg
  • Young technician constructs European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Jules Verne module at Kourou Spaceport.
    esa_guiana29316-08-2007.jpg
  • Sterile technicians construct European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Jules Verne module at Kourou Spaceport.
    esa_guiana27916-08-2007.jpg
  • Ariane 5 rocket models in the foyer of Arianespace's Galilee building at the European Space Agency's Spaceport. French Guiana
    esa_guiana35816-08-2007.jpg
  • A full-scale model of a 50.5 meter-high European Space Agency's (ESA) Ariane 5 rocket at museum of Guiana Space Centre
    esa_guiana23615-08-2007.jpg
  • Night-time satellite rocket launch into cloud of Spaceway 3 for Hughes network Systems and BSAT-3a for Lockheed Martin.
    esa_guiana13815-08-2007.jpg
  • Arianespace buffet at post-launch party for European Space Agency Hughes network Systems and Lockheed Martin clients at Kourou
    esa_guiana16215-08-2007.jpg
  • Arianespace hosting post-launch party for European Space Agency Hughes network Systems and Lockheed Martin clients at Kourou.
    esa_guiana15715-08-2007.jpg
  • Rusting Europropulsion Ariane 5 rocket booster parts lie on tropical wasteland at European Space Agency's Kourou space center.
    esa_guiana16815-08-2007.jpg
  • Satellite dishes in a ghetto housing estate in town of Kourou in French Guiana, home of the European Space Agency's Spaceport.
    esa_guiana35316-08-2007.jpg
  • A VT Merlin satellite tracking dish appears to blow clouds across a blue sky at the Diane Tracking station, French Guiana
    esa_guiana32817-08-2007.jpg
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