Growth of Other National ProgramsIn November 1965, France became the third nation with an independent spaceflight capability
when it orbited its first
satellite, named A-1, from Hammaguir, a French military base located in the Algerian Sahara Desert. The French eventually evacuated this base and moved their launch operations to Kourou, French Guiana. In 1970, Japan and the People's Republic of China became the fourth and fifth nations to possess independent launch capability when Osumi and China 1, respectively, were launched from within these two
countries. In 1971, Great Britain became the sixth nation to join the club when it launched the Prospero satellite from Woomera, Australia, using a Black Arrow launch vehicle (the last time, however, that Woomera served as a launch site). India, in 1980, became the seventh nation in space when it orbited a satellite from its Sriharikota Launching Range. Israel became the eighth space nation in 1988, when it launched a small satellite from a pad in the Negev desert. In addition, the costliness of space programs led several European nations to form a consortium called the European Space Agency (ESA), enabling a number of smaller countries to participate in such programs. ESA has launched satellites using U.S. vehicles but now mainly orbits them from Kourou using the Ariane launch vehicle, which became operational in 1983.The international character of the space effort is exemplified by the use made of U.S. and Russian launch vehicles by many other countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy. Italy itself owns a launch facility, San Marco, a platform off the coast of Kenya, which has in turn been used by the United States. In addition, many countries have flown experiments on foreign satellites or have otherwise participated in space programs through such activities as providing tracking station facilities and launching sounding rockets or sending balloons aloft in various geophysical projects.