Tag: European Space Agency
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Pioneering ESA mission aims to create artificial solar eclipses
Due to launch together in 2020, the two satellites making up Proba-3 will fly in precise formation to form an external coronagraph in space, one satellite eclipsing the sun to allow the second to study the otherwise invisible solar corona. Credit: ESA As skywatchers and scientists converge on a transcontinental band of totality for Monday’s…
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Replays of new station crew’s liftoff and docking
The videos posted below include a replay of NASA TV’s coverage of the Soyuz liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and link-up with the station’s Rassvet module Friday, plus multi-angle views of the launch provided by Roscosmos. The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft lifted off at 1541:12 GMT (11:41:12 a.m. EDT; 9:41:12 p.m. Baikonur time) Friday…
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Soyuz rockets into space with three bound for station
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan Friday, boosting a three-man crew into orbit for a six-hour flight to the International Space Station. The workhorse Soyuz rocket thundered to life at 11:41 a.m. EDT (GMT-4; 9:41 p.m. local time) and streaked away from the…
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Live coverage: Veteran three-man crew docks with space station
Live coverage of the Expedition 52 mission on the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
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Soyuz crew set for Friday launch to space station
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Paolo Nespoli, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Randy Bresnik pose for a picture after a crew news conference Thursday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky Launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft Friday carrying three fresh crew members to the International Space Station will boost the lab’s crew…
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Launcher for next space station crew in position for liftoff Friday
A Russian Soyuz rocket made a railroad journey Wednesday to its launch pad in Kazakhstan, two days before blastoff with a crew of three spaceflight veterans from the United States, Italy and Russia heading for the International Space Station. The three-stage rocket departed an assembly building just after sunrise Wednesday on a special rail car…
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Pioneering probe for gravitational wave observatory ends mission
Artist’s illustration of the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft. Credit: ESA The European Space Agency’s LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, now sailing around the sun on a trajectory away from Earth, was deactivated Tuesday after a nearly 18-month mission testing previously-untried lasers, vacuum enclosures, exotic gold-platinum cubes and micro-thrusters needed for a trio of gravitational wave observatories set for…
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BepiColombo Mercury mission tested for journey into ‘pizza oven’
A view of the BepiColombo spacecraft stacked in launch configuration at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC test center in the Netherlands. The sunshield cover for Japan’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter is pictured at lower right. Credit: Airbus Defense and Space Three spacecraft built in Europe and Japan have completed their final joint tests to ensure they…
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German-British consortium wins deal to build eight more Galileo satellites
Artist’s illustration of Galileo navigation satellites in orbit. Credit: OHB Eight more satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation fleet will be built by Germany’s OHB System AG and Britain’s Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. under a contract worth more than $350 million. The European Space Agency and the European Commission selected the same German-British industrial team that…
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Video: Replay of Soyuz MS-03 crew landing in Kazakhstan
Watch a replay of the landing of Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet inside the Soyuz MS-03 crew capsule on the Kazakh stepped Friday, ending their six-and-a-half month expedition on the International Space Station. The duo departed the space station at 1047 GMT (6:47 a.m. EDT), braked out of orbit with a de-orbit burn and rode…