Tag: CNES
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Live coverage: Soyuz launches from French Guiana
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with the first COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, or CSG 1, radar surveillance satellite for ASI, the Italian space agency. The European Space Agency’s Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite, or CHEOPS, will fly as a secondary payload on the mission, along with three CubeSats. Text…
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Timeline of Soyuz launch with CSG 1 and CHEOPS
Follow the key events of the Soyuz ST-A rocket’s ascent into orbit from the Guiana Space Center with the first COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, or CSG 1, radar observation satellite, the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS exoplanet telescope, and three CubeSats. A listing of exact times for the flight’s major events is posted below. Data source: Arianespace…
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ESA satellite set for launch to measure sizes of exoplanets
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Dec. 17 after the first launch attempt was scrubbed. Artist’s illustration of the CHEOPS spacecraft observing an exoplanet transiting in front of its parent star. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab A compact exoplanet observatory built in Europe to help astronomers determine the sizes of distant worlds around other stars is scheduled for launch Wednesday from…
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Oceanography satellite ends 11-year mission
Artist’s concept of the Jason 2 spacecraft in orbit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A joint U.S.-European satellite mission that measured rising sea levels for 11 years is ending due to the deteriorating condition of the spacecraft’s power system, officials said Friday. The Jason 2 satellite was designed to operate for three to five years, but it outlived…
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Mars lander’s ground team begins inspection of stuck instrument
The InSight lander’s robotic arm camera captured this view of the stuck mole from the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument June 30, soon after the arm lifted and moved the instrument’s support structure. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In a bit of interplanetary troubleshooting, the robot arm on NASA’s InSight Mars lander has lifted a…
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Scientists call on InSight’s robotic arm to assist stalled heat probe on Mars
The self-hammering mole, part of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA’s InSight lander, was only partially buried in the soil of Mars as of early June 2019, as shown in this illustration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Later this month, ground teams will send commands for the InSight lander on Mars to use its…
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InSight lander detects first likely ‘quake’ on Mars
This image of InSight’s seismometer was captured March 19. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Sensors delivered to Mars by NASA’s InSight lander have detected the first signals suggesting seismic activity on the red planet, a major discovery that extends the field of seismology to a new world beyond the Earth and the moon. Scientists announced the detection Tuesday,…
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InSight scientists not sure stalled Mars heat probe can be recovered
A camera on the end of the InSight lander’s robotic arm took this picture of the Heat and Physical Properties Package, or HP3, instrument’s support structure on the Martian surface March 28. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Ground teams analyzing data from a heat probe that got stuck soon after it started digging into the Martian crust under…
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Watch a spectacular slow-motion replay of last week’s Ariane 5 launch
Arianespace and CNES, the French space agency, have released sensational slow-motion video from shielded engineering cameras at the Ariane 5 rocket’s launch pad in French Guiana, showing the launcher’s fiery evening takeoff Feb. 5 with communications satellites for Saudi Arabia and India. The nearly 18-story-tall Ariane 5 lifted off at 6:01 p.m. local time (2101…
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InSight lander completes seismometer deployment on Mars
NASA’s InSight lander has placed a protective enclosure over a French-developed seismometer designed to detect tremors on Mars, completing the deployment of the first of two science instruments delivered to the Red Planet in November. Using its nearly 8-foot-long (2.4-meter) robotic arm, InSight followed commands beamed up from Earth to cover the seismometer package with…