Tag: Thales Alenia Space
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Live coverage: Turkish reconnaissance launches on Vega rocket
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Vega rocket rocket with the Gokturk 1 Earth observation satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. Arianespace’s live webcast begins at 1331 GMT (8:31 a.m. EST). Please ensure your browser is updated with the…
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Launch timeline for Vega’s liftoff with Gokturk 1
Turkey’s most advanced Earth observation satellite will ride a four-stage Vega rocket into polar orbit nearly 435 miles (700 kilometers) above Earth to begin collecting high-resolution images for Turkish military and security authorities. The ascent will take nearly an hour following launch from French Guiana at 1351:44 GMT (8:51:44 a.m. EST) Monday. Credit: Arianespace T+00:00:00…
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Turkish military satellite joined with Vega launcher
Ground crew members lower the Gokturk 1 satellite inside its payload fairing on top of the Vega rocket’s fourth stage. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – G. Barbaste A European-built reconnaissance satellite for the Turkish armed forces has been fastened to the top of its Vega launcher for liftoff from French Guiana…
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ESA says doomed Mars lander succumbed to bad altitude reading
Artist’s concept of the Schiaparelli lander inside its scorched heat shield. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab One second of faulty data led to the destruction of a European spacecraft on final descent to Mars last month, officials said Wednesday. An unexplained error in the Schiaparelli lander’s Inertial Measurement Unit, or IMU, fed incorrect data into the craft’s…
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Live coverage: ExoMars orbiter steers into orbit around Mars, lander’s fate TBD
Live coverage of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli lander arriving at Mars. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
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ESA celebrates ExoMars orbiter success, keeps vigil for lost lander
Artist’s concept of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter firing its main engine to enter orbit around Mars. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab A European-built orbiter designed to seek out the source of methane on Mars slipped into orbit around the red planet Wednesday after a seven-month interplanetary journey, but mission control lost contact with an experimental landing…
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First two Iridium Next satellites shipped to Vandenberg
Technicians load the first two Iridium Next satellites into their shipping containers at Orbital ATK’s manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona. Credit: Iridium The first two next-generation Iridium satellites, designed to connect global subscribers with data and voice traffic, arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday, where they will join eight more message relay craft…
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ExoMars orbiter fine-tunes path toward red planet
Artist’s concept of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Credit: Thales Alenia Space. A European spacecraft cruising toward Mars fired its main engine Thursday, tweaking its trajectory and helping set up for carefully-choreographed simultaneous maneuvers Oct. 19 to place part of the tandem mission into orbit around the red planet and deposit a stationary battery-powered lander…
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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…
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Photos: Jason 3 oceanography satellite encapsulated
The Jason 3 oceanography satellite, a joint project between U.S. and European weather agencies, is closed up inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket awaiting launch from California’s Central Coast on Sunday. Technicians from SpaceX and Thales Alenia Space, the French manufacturer of the Jason 3 spacecraft, oversaw the encapsulation procedure Jan.…