Tag: European Space Agency
-
Europe’s Sentinel satellites generating huge ‘Big Data’ archive
This full resolution subset of the first Sentinel 1B image captured Thursday shows Norway’s Nordaustlandet island in the Svalbard archipelago, covered by the Austfonna ice cap. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2016], processed by ESA With a second radar surveillance satellite already returning images less than three days after launch, managers in charge of Europe’s…
-
Balky navigation unit prompts rare Soyuz launch scrub
The Soyuz rocket sits inside its mobile gantry at the launch pad in French Guiana on Sunday. Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2016 Russian rocket technicians planned to swap out a failed inertial measurement unit inside a Soyuz rocket overnight Sunday after a failure in the navigation system forced officials to abort the booster’s planned launch of…
-
Chinese space lab back on Earth after groundbreaking embryo experiment
Chinese technicians greet the Shijian 10 landing module after its touchdown Monday in the Inner Mongolia region. Credit: Xinhua/Chen Junqing An uncrewed spacecraft landed in China’s Inner Mongolia region Monday after nearly 13 days in orbit carrying an array of microgravity research experiments, including a groundbreaking investigation that showed mammal embryos can develop in space,…
-
Moon Village vs. Journey to Mars: Which space vision will the next president pick?
An artist’s conception shows a permanent lunar base that’s part of the European Space Agency’s “Moon Village” vision. (Credit: ESA) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Over the past eight years, the focus of NASA’s space vision has shifted from the moon, to a near-Earth asteroid, to the journey to Mars. The European Space Agency’s director-general, meanwhile,…
-
Chinese research craft launched on two-week mission
The Shijian 10 recoverable satellite lifted off at 1:38 a.m. Beijing time Wednesday. Credit: Xinhua The unpiloted Shijian 10 spacecraft launched from a spaceport in northwestern China on Tuesday with a suite of microgravity research experiments developed by Chinese and European scientists. The bullet-shaped space capsule soared into orbit aboard a Long March 2D rocket at…
-
Europe’s ExoMars orbiter smoothly cruising toward red planet
Artist’s concept of the Trace Gas Orbiter releasing the Schiaparelli lander on approach to Mars on Oct. 16. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab Ground controllers are running Europe’s ExoMars orbiter through a post-launch checkup a week after its successful liftoff aboard a Proton rocket, and a first look at the probe’s systems revealed no problems, the mission’s…
-
Marvel at Monday’s Mars launch with these photos
Take a look back at the fiery blastoff of a Russian Proton rocket Monday with the ExoMars 2016 mission to examine the red planet’s atmosphere and test new European entry, descent and landing technologies. The 191-foot-tall (58-meter) rocket took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0931:42 GMT (5:31:42 a.m. EDT) Monday with the…
-
Video: ExoMars mission blasts off on Proton rocket
A massive spacecraft bound for Mars lifted off on a Russian Proton rocket Monday, riding more than 2 million pounds of thrust from the launcher’s six main engines through low clouds hanging over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander, bolted together inside the nose cone of the 191-foot-tall…
-
Massive European spacecraft launched toward Mars
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016 Boosted off planet Earth by a Russian Proton rocket, a European-built space probe departed for Mars on Monday, beginning a mission to test future landing technologies and search for methane, a potential signature of microbial life. The mission also aims to map Mars in high-resolution and search for hydrogen embedded…
-
Live coverage: ExoMars mission underway after Proton launch
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Proton rocket with Europe’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module to Mars. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.