Kourou, French Guiana · UTC-3
Convert time from Kourou
Kourou is in the America/Cayenne timezone (GFT/UTC-3), a fixed offset with no daylight saving shared across French Guiana.
Kourou is where Europe sends its rockets. The Guiana Space Centre, operated by the European Space Agency and CNES, launches Ariane, Vega, and Soyuz vehicles from a site a few kilometers from the city. The location was chosen deliberately: at 5 degrees north latitude, rockets launched eastward get a significant boost from the Earth’s rotation. The equatorial location is Kourou’s superpower.
space launches run on UTC, not local time
The city runs on America/Cayenne time: UTC-3, year-round, no daylight saving. French Guiana does not observe DST despite being a French overseas territory. France itself (in Europe) uses CET/CEST, meaning French Guiana is always 4 or 5 hours behind the metropole, depending on European DST.
Launch schedules from Kourou are coordinated in UTC, the universal time reference for spaceflight. Local Kourou time is relevant for ground crews and logistics, but the launch window is defined in UTC and communicated globally. When mission control in Toulouse counts down, Kourou time is the ground truth of what the countdown means locally.
At 5 degrees north, daylight in Kourou is remarkably stable: close to 12 hours every day of the year. The rainy seasons (December-July broadly, with a dry break) structure the humidity and launch weather more than the clock does.
9am in Kourou is noon in London in winter, three hours behind GMT.
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Questions about time in Kourou
- What timezone is Kourou in?
- Kourou uses the IANA timezone
America/Cayenne. The UTC offset is always UTC-3 — this timezone does not observe daylight saving time. - Does Kourou observe daylight saving time?
- No. Kourou does not observe daylight saving time. The UTC offset remains UTC-3 all year round.
- What is the current UTC offset for Kourou?
- Kourou is currently at UTC-3.
- What is the time difference between Kourou and New York?
- Kourou is currently 1 hour ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Kourou and London?
- Kourou is currently 4 hours behind London.
- What is the time difference between Kourou and Los Angeles?
- Kourou is currently 4 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Kourou and Tokyo?
- Kourou is currently 12 hours behind Tokyo.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Kourou?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Kourou is
America/Cayenne. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'America/Cayenne' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('America/Cayenne')`), or any IANA-compatible library.