Tag: European Space Agency
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Photos: Ariane 5 rocket arrives at launch pad in French Guiana
Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin Mounted on a mobile platform, a European Ariane 5 rocket followed dual rail tracks across the Guiana Space Center in South America on the way to its jungle launch complex Monday, a day before its scheduled blastoff with four satellites to expand Europe’s independent…
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Galileo navigation satellites buttoned up for launch on Ariane 5 rocket
The Ariane 5 rocket’s Swiss-made payload fairing was lowered Nov. 30 over four Galileo satellites mounted on top of the launcher inside the final assembly building at the Guiana Space Center in South America. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon Technicians working in the jungle of French Guiana have installed…
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Jupiter’s moons, black holes, exoplanets among JWST’s first scientific targets
Artist’s concept of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/Northrop Grumman The James Webb Space Telescope should start returning its first scientific results by the end of 2019, and scientists recently announced a slate of observations selected to whet the appetites of astronomers who will use the multibillion-dollar facility well into the 2020s. The observatory’s…
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Detector trouble expected to delay ESA’s Euclid dark energy mission
Artist’s concept of the Euclid spacecraft. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau Technical problems discovered during ground testing of U.S.-built detectors for the European Space Agency’s Euclid astronomy mission will delay the completion of the telescope’s scientific payload, jeopardizing the observatory’s 2020 launch target, the head of NASA’s astrophysics division said last week. Officials expect the problem, traced…
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Photos: Converted Russian ballistic missile fires into space with satellite
A decommissioned missile originally built in Russia to deliver nuclear weapons to intercontinental targets in the United States vaulted out of a vertical canister Friday and fired into space with a European satellite to monitor global air pollution. The 95-foot-tall (29-meter) Rockot booster took off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 1127:44 GMT…
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Modified Russian missile boosts Europe’s newest environmental sentinel to space
A Rockot booster made from decommissioned Russian military missile stages carried Europe’s Sentinel 5P satellite to orbit Friday. Credit: ESA A European satellite that will collect daily air quality measurements over every major city on Earth rode an uprated Russian ballistic missile into orbit Friday. Assembled in Britain with a significant Dutch contribution, the Sentinel…
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Photos: Sentinel 5P environmental satellite prepared for liftoff
Europe’s Sentinel 5P satellite, fitted with a Dutch-developed spectrometer to measure gases in Earth’s atmosphere, was fueled and mated to its Russian Rockot booster over the last month at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a military complex around 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow. The 1,800-pound (820-kilogram) spacecraft is set for launch Friday at 0927:44 GMT…
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Live coverage: European environmental satellite launches from Russia
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rockot launcher with Europe’s Sentinel 5P environmental monitoring satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
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JWST launch slips to early 2019
Artist’s concept of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: Northrop Grumman Extra testing of the James Webb Space Telescope and delays in assembling the powerful observatory will push back the $10 billion mission’s launch by at least six months to early 2019, officials announced last week as the telescope successfully completed an extensive performance test…
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Arianespace procures first batch of upgraded Vega-C rockets, preps for last Ariane 5 order
This artist’s illustration shows the lineup of European rockets currently flying or scheduled to debut in the next few years. From left to right: Vega, Vega-C, Ariane 5 ECA, Ariane 62 and Ariane 64. Credit: ESA–David Ducros, Jacky Huart, 2016 Arianespace has split its third order of Vega rockets from Italy’s Avio between old and…