The ESA thread

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Saturn and one of it's moons, Dione. From Cassini, 21st of May, 2015.

 

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NASA has opened media accreditation for a Nov. 30 event marking the arrival of a full-size test version of the service module, provided by ESA (European Space Agency), for NASA’s Orion spacecraft at the agency’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.

NASA officials and European partners will address the media and answer questions about the Orion spacecraft and test plans for the service module, followed by a tour of the facility.

NASA Opens Media Accreditation for Orion Service Module Event | NASA

The five CubeSat concepts to be studied to accompany ESA’s proposed Asteroid Impact Mission into deep space have been selected.

The ideas being looked at include taking a close-up look at the composition of the asteroid surface, measuring the gravity field, assessing the dust and ejecta plumes created during a collision, and landing a CubeSat for seismic monitoring.

The Asteroid Impact Mission, or AIM, undergoing detailed design ahead of a final go/no-go decision by ESA’s Ministerial Council in December 2016, is a deep-space technology-demonstration mission that would also be humanity’s first probe to rendezvous with a double asteroid.

AIM is also set to be Europe’s contribution to a larger international endeavour called the Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission: the US Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) would strike the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids, with AIM on hand for before-and-after monitoring of any resulting orbital and structural shifts.

CubeSat companions for ESA’s asteroid mission / Asteroid Impact Mission / Space Engineering & Technology / Our Activities / ESA

 

[LeslieEngel]

Great post. very interesting.

 

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20 November 2015
The latest satellite for the European Commission’s Copernicus environmental programme has left France bound for the Plesetsk launch site in Russia and launch late next month.

Carrying a precision radar altimeter, an advanced infrared radiometer, and a wide-swath ocean and land imaging spectrometer, Sentinel-3 supplies a wealth of data related mainly to the marine environment for Europe's Copernicus programme. Delivering critical data on the height and temperature of the sea surface, it supports ocean forecasting for maritime safety. In coastal zones, this is also important for predicting extreme events such as storm surges and floods. Additionally, ocean-colour data provide key information to monitor seawater quality and pollution. Applications using data acquired over land include fire detection and land-cover mapping. Sentinel-3 also provides information to map the topography and extent of ice and to monitor the height of lake and river water.

Sentinel-3A on its way / Copernicus / Observing the Earth / Our Activities / ESA

25 November 2015
The two ExoMars spacecraft of the 2016 mission are being prepared for shipping to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ahead of their launch in March.

A joint endeavour with Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, ExoMars comprises two missions. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli make up the 2016 mission, while the 2018 mission will combine a rover and a surface science platform. Both missions will be launched on Russian Proton rockets from Baikonur.

TGO and Schiaparelli are undergoing final preparations at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, where they were today on display for media to view for the last time before they leave Europe.

ExoMars prepares to leave Europe for launch site / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA

LISA Pathfinder being encapsulated within the half-shells of the Vega rocket fairing on 16 November 2015, at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana.

LISA Pathfinder will test the fundamental technologies and instrumentation needed for future gravitational-wave observatories in space. LISA Pathfinder is currently scheduled for launch with Arianespace flight VV06 – the sixth launch of Europe's small Vega launcher – on 2 December at 04:15:00 UTC.

 

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Some pics from satellites, all hi res:

Merida, Spain

Cairo, Egypt

Paris, France

Some Martian surface

 

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Vega scored its sixth straight success with the launch of ESA’s LISA Pathfinder scientific craft earlier this month...

Such is the market confidence in Vega that nine of the 10 vehicles ordered by Arianespace from prime contractor ELV in November 2013 are already assigned to customers.

At the ESA Ministerial meeting in December 2014, Member States agreed to begin developing the more powerful Vega C, now expected to debut in 2018.

Vega graduates with perfect record / Launchers / Our Activities / ESA


Large HD of launch of ISS mission from Baikonur carrying ESA astronaut, from 100 meters away... makes for a very nice desktop background

15 December 2015
Galileos 11 and 12 are on the launch pad, attached to the top of their Soyuz rocket in readiness for this week’s launch.

In future, the number of satellites that can be inserted into orbit with a single launch will double from two to four, when a customised Ariane 5 rocket becomes available to complement Soyuz.

Galileos in the zone for launch / Launching Galileo / The future - Galileo / Navigation / Our Activities / ESA

Very much like the pace of this, 2 satellites every 3 months ona single launch, hopefully can be expanded to 4 at each launch, so the constellation is completed faster.

 

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The next great space observatory took a step closer this week when ESA signed the contract with Arianespace that will see the James Webb Space Telescope launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in October 2018.

ESA confirms James Webb telescope Ariane launch / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA

 

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EDRS launch tomorrow.

Once fully deployed, EDRS will relay up to 50 terabytes of data from space to Earth every day. It will eliminate the downlink delay currently prohibiting immediate access to satellite information and phase out Europe’s reliance on foreign ground stations.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/T...rated_Applications/EDRS/Watch_the_EDRS_launch

Space walk, first person view