Tag: ESA
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Hera adds objectives to planetary defense test mission
An international planetary defense mission involving NASA and ESA will now include two CubeSats. APEX (Asteroid Prospection Explorer) and Juventas will ride with ESA’s Hera spacecraft, which is set to arrive at the Didymos binary asteroid system shortly after NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirect Test) spacecraft has impacted the smaller of the two objects, Didymoon. Hera will arrive to take observations…
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Arianespace Soyuz ST-B launches Metop-C
Arianespace launched a new European weather satellite Tuesday, using a Soyuz rocket to deploy the Metop-C spacecraft into orbit around the Earth. Liftoff from the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana, occurred at 21:47:27 local time (00:47 UTC on Wednesday). The Meteorological Operational (Metop) satellites are operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation…
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Arianespace’s Vega rocket launches ESA’s Aeolus
Arianespace’s lightweight Vega rocket has deployed the European Space Agency’s Aeolus climate science satellite Wednesday in an evening launch from the Centre Spatial Guyanais at Kourou, French Guiana. The mission set sail at the instantaneous launch opportunity timed at 18:20:09 local time (21:20 UTC). Aeolus, also known as the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM) or ADM-Aeolus,…
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ESA exoplanet hunter CHEOPS set to depart Spain for pre-launch testing
The CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) spacecraft has completed integration work at Airbus’ Madrid-Barajas site and is now set to be shipped around Europe for testing. This spacecraft will be the first mission dedicated to searching for exoplanetary transits by performing ultra-high precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. Nearly eight years ago, CHEOPS was selected…
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Mars Sample Return mission gains traction – SLS and Orion had an eye on involvement
The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have signed a statement of intent to jointly explore various options related to a potential Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission in the next decade. Returning Martian samples to Earth has long been a goal for the world’s spaceflight agencies, with new promotional materials from NASA indicating that the…
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BepiColombo arrives at launch site for final pre-flight processing
After years of development, build, and testing, BepiColombo is arriving at Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in South America for final preflight integration and checkouts. The joint mission between Europe and Japan is now in the home stretch of ground processing ahead of launch. The mission is slated to begin No Earlier Than 5…
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Animated GIF shows ‘snow’ on Rosetta’s comet – and sends chills around the world
An image from the Rosetta probe shows the Cliffs of Hathor on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Specks and streaks cover the frame. Some of them are dust particles, others are background stars. The star cluster NGC 2362 is prominent near the upper left edge of the picture. (ESA / Rosetta / MPS / OSIRIS / UPD /…
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Europe’s Trace Gas Orbiter sends its first color picture of Mars – and it’s spectacular
An image from the CaSSIS camera on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter shows the rim of Korolev Crater on Mars. Click on the image for a larger version. (ESA / Roscosmos / CaSSIS Image) The first color image to come from a camera aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter in its Mars-mapping orbit shows the…
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Gaia probe maps the comings and goings of galaxy’s stars – and scientists go gaga
A newly released image from the European Space Agency’s Gaia star-mapping mission shows a full-sky view of our Milky Way galaxy and neighboring galaxies in color. (ESA / Gaia / DPAC) The European Space Agency has released the world’s most exhaustive star catalog, pinpointing the positions of nearly 1.7 billion stars. Today’s release, based on…
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Russian Rokot launches Sentinel-3b
In what was likely to be its last commercial launch, Russia’s Rokot rocket gave the European Sentinel-3b satellite a ride to orbit Wednesday. Liftoff, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwest Russia, occurred at 20:57 Moscow Time (17:57 UTC). Wednesday’s launch deployed Sentinel-3B, a spacecraft dedicated to the study of Earth’s oceans and vegetation. Sentinel-3B is…