Tag: European Space Agency
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Brexit raises question mark over UK’s role in some European space projects
SSTL engineers working in Guildford, England, test a navigation payload for Europe’s Galileo program. Credit: SSTL The future participation of major segments of Britain’s space industry in Europe’s Galileo navigation system and Copernicus environmental network, two multibillion-dollar flagship programs with dozens of satellites, is sure to be a significant part of negotiations as the UK…
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Italian radar satellite, European exoplanet telescope to launch on Soyuz next year
File photo of a Soyuz launch from French Guiana in 2015. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin The Italian government has decided to launch two next-generation radar reconnaissance satellites on Soyuz and Vega rockets from French Guiana, and a European Space Agency telescope to study the structures of planets around…
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Rosetta’s comet shows scars from swing through inner solar system
This series of before-and-after views show the area of the Aswan cliff, which collapsed in July 2015 in conjunction with a strong outburst of gas and dust, seen by Rosetta in the long-range view at center. The same boulder is circled in all images to guide the eye when viewing the scene from different orientations.…
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Europe’s ExoMars spacecraft begins lowering its orbit
Artist’s concept of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a Russian-launched, European-built spacecraft that arrived at Mars in October, is starting to dip into the upper reaches of the red planet’s atmosphere in a year-long “aerobraking” campaign place the observatory in the right position to hunt for methane,…
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Photos: Vega rocket vaults off launch pad
Firing off the launch pad with more than a half-million pounds of thrust, a Vega rocket soared into space Monday night from French Guiana with Europe’s Sentinel 2B environmental satellite. The 98-foot-tall (30-meter), four-stage rocket, powered by Italian and Ukrainian propulsion, took off at 10:49:24 p.m. local time in French Guiana (0149:24 GMT; 8:49:24 p.m.…
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Environmental sentinel launched from French Guiana
The Vega rocket took off from the Guiana Space Center at 10:49 p.m. French Guiana time Monday. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – G. Barbaste A European environmental satellite rode a solid-fueled Vega launcher from a tropical spaceport at the edge of the Amazon jungle into polar orbit Monday night, adding a…
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Live coverage: European environmental satellite launched by Vega rocket
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Vega rocket with the Sentinel 2A land imaging satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. Arianespace’s live video stream begins at approximately 0130 GMT (8:30 p.m. EST). Please ensure your browser is updated with the latest…
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Launch timeline for Vega rocket’s flight with Sentinel 2B
Europe’s fifth Sentinel Earth observation satellite will ride a four-stage Vega rocket into polar orbit 488 miles (786 kilometers) above Earth to begin tracking changes in agriculture and forestry patterns and monitoring natural disasters. The ascent will take nearly an hour following launch from French Guiana at 0149:24 GMT March 7 (8:49:24 p.m. EST March 6). Credit: Arianespace T+00:00:00 – Liftoff The Vega rocket’s first stage P80 solid rocket motor ignites and powers the…
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Europe’s next Sentinel land imaging satellite mated to rocket booster
Ground crews have mounted the fully-fueled Sentinel 2B spacecraft, the next mission in Europe’s multibillion-dollar Copernicus Earth observation satellite fleet, on top of a Vega rocket inside a protective gantry on its launch pad in French Guiana for blastoff next month. The satellite was encapsulated inside the Vega rocket’s Swiss-made composite nose shroud Feb. 15,…
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Video: Soyuz rocket blasts off with German-made, Spanish-owned satellite
Watch a video replay of Friday night’s blastoff of a Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center with Hispasat 36W-1, a communications satellite developed by OHB in Germany for Spain’s Hispasat to test out new telecom technologies and provide data networking, video and broadband services over South America and Europe. The Soyuz booster took off…