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Atlas Obscura1 min read

The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana

In the 1960s French scientists had a problem. Algeria had just won its independence and was not very interested in continuing to host France’s fledgling spaceport, leaving them without a launchpad. They needed a site without earthquakes or hurricanes, close to the equator to take advantage of the slingshot effect (using the earth’s rotation for extra energy), and close to an ocean they could launch over to minimise the chance of debris falling on population centres. They found their match in the
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Atlas Obscura1 min

Hiwassee Dam in Owl Creek, North Carolina

Built between 1936 and 1940, the Hiwassee Dam was originally built to harness the Hiwassee River and provide power for the Tennessee River Valley. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the TVA Act in 1933 and one of its purposes was for national defense. The Hiwassee Dam was chosen as a site for torpedo testing because of its remote mountainous location and because at places it reached 250 feet deep. In 1956 a reverse-drive generator turbine, the first of its kind in the nation, was so importan

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