Tag: CNES
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Arianespace Vega launches CERÉS satellites for CNES
Arianespace’s Vega rocket launched on its third mission of the year with the Capacité de Renseignement Électromagnétique Spatiale (CERÉS) 1, 2, and 3 satellites for the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). Vega lifted off on November 16, at 6:27 AM Kourou time (09:27 UTC). This mission was Vega’s 20th overall and Arianespace’s…
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Perseverance rover records sounds of driving on Mars
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard left Navigation Camera (Navcam) on March 7, the same day the rover’s microphone recorded the sounds of driving. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Perseverance rover has recorded the crunching, rattling sound of its six metallic wheels rolling across Mars. Perseverance carries the first microphones ever sent to…
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Photos: Soyuz launches French military satellite
Check out imagery from Arianespace and the French space agency showing the launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket Dec. 29 from the Guiana Space Center in South America. The Soyuz ST-A rocket and Fregat upper stage delivered the French military’s CSO 2 optical reconnaissance satellite to an orbit around 300 miles (480 kilometers) above Earth…
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French military surveillance satellite launched by Soyuz rocket
A Soyuz ST-A rocket fires off its launch pad in French Guiana with the CSO 2 spacecraft. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. Piron An optical reconnaissance satellite for the French military took off atop a Soyuz launcher Tuesday, riding the Russian-made rocket from a tropical spaceport in South America into…
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Arianespace, with Russian Soyuz, launches CSO-2 French military satellite
The 114th and final orbital launch of 2020 saw a Soyuz ST-A rocket loft the CSO-2 Earth observation satellite for the French Ministry of Defence. Liftoff occurred at 16:42:07 UTC (11:42:07 EST) on 29 December from the ELS (Ensemble de Lancement Soyouz) launchpad at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, an overseas department of…
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Live coverage: Soyuz lifts off from French Guiana
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with the CSO 2 optical reconnaissance satellite for the French military. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Arianespace’s live video stream begins at 1627 GMT (11:27 a.m. EST) and will be available here. If you appreciate what we…
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French military spysat set for launch Monday
Artist’s illustration of a CSO satellite. Credit: Airbus A sharp-eyed French military surveillance spacecraft is set for launch aboard a Soyuz rocket Monday from French Guiana into a 300-mile-high orbit, where it will collect the highest-resolution imagery ever produced by a European reconnaissance satellite. A Russian Soyuz ST-A rocket rolled out to its launch pad…
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Arianespace targets early 2021 for Vega return-to-flight
File photo of a Vega launch in 2018. Credit: ESA – S. Corvaja Presenting the results of an inquiry into a European Vega rocket failure last month, officials said Friday that misleading instructions and inadequate preflight checks caused teams to overlook wrongly-installed cables on the launcher’s upper stage steering system. Arianespace and European Space Agency…
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European Vega rocket suffers second failure in three launches
A Vega rocket took off Monday night from French Guiana with two European satellites, but the launcher failed to deploy the payloads into orbit. Credit: Arianespace A European Vega rocket crashed back to Earth shortly after launching from French Guiana carrying a Spanish land imaging satellite and a French research probe with a combined value…
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Arianespace traces cause of Vega launch failure to ‘human error’
This frame grab from Arianespace’s live launch webcast shows an animation of the Vega rocket’s AVUM upper stage with the SEOSAT-Ingenio Earth observation satellite. Credit: Arianespace Inverted cables on the Vega rocket’s upper stage control system apparently caused the launcher to tumble minutes after liftoff Monday night, a failure that resulted in the loss of…