After a successful launch rehearsal, GIOVE-B is ready for the final countdown. Here is the planned sequence of events from launch tower retraction until the end of the launch and early orbit phase. There will be live web streaming of the launch (23:25 - 00:30 CEST), spacecraft separation (03:55 - 04:15), and acquisition of Earth pointing mode (06:55 - 07:18).
The High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA’s Mars Express orbiter imaged the region of Nepenthes Mensae, a river delta on Mars, on 22 January 2008. The region is located in the eastern hemisphere of Mars, close to the boundary between the northern lowlands and the southern highlands.
This Envisat image features the southeastern part of the Russian Federation, the northeastern tip of the People’s Republic of China, the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, the Sikhote-Alin Mountain Range, the Sea of Japan and Sakhalin Island.
ESA’s Jules Verne ATV was used for the first time early this morning to raise the orbit of the International Space Station. A 740-second burn of the Automated Transfer Vehicle’s main engines successfully lifted the altitude of the 280-tonne Station by around 4.5 km to a height of 342 km above the Earth’s surface.
Galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures, as 59 new images from the NASA/ESA Hubble space telescope show.
Following the success of the Dragon Programme, more than 300 leading European and Chinese scientists have gathered from 21 to 25 April 2008 in Beijing in the People’s Republic of China to present their results and to kick off the programme’s second phase, Dragon 2.
The launcher that will carry GIOVE-B into orbit has been moved from the final assembly building to the launch pad in preparation for liftoff on Sunday morning.
GIOVE-B, the second Galileo satellite, is scheduled for launch at 00:16 CEST on Sunday, 27 April (22:16, 26 April UTC/GMT). Live streaming video coverage from the launch site and the spacecraft control centre will be available on the GIOVE-B website.
The mirror of the Herschel telescope has now been assembled with the payload and service module, completing the spacecraft structure - an important milestone in the days following through to launch.
A technique being used by the European Space Agency at Mars could prove invaluable for studying the stability of Antarctic ice sheets here on Earth. In preparation, a new ESA study is seeking to refine the radar method for use on our planet.
Yesterday evening, an Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites into geostationary transfer orbits.
The control centre for the Proba (Project for On-Board Autonomy)-1 mission is located at one of ESA’s longest-serving facilities, Redu, in Belgium. Redu station conducts operational testing of telecommunication satellites and has served for the last 40 years as a ground station, receiving scientific data from numerous missions.
Data from the ESA/NASA spacecraft SOHO shows clearly that powerful starquakes ripple around the Sun in the wake of mighty solar flares that explode above its surface. The observations give solar physicists new insight into a long-running solar mystery and may even provide a way of studying other stars.
This Envisat image features the Gobi Desert, which stretches across vast areas of the Mongolian People’s Republic and the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China.
ESA’s Mars Express radar sounder, MARSIS, has looked beneath the martian surface and opened up the third dimension for planetary exploration. The technique’s success is prompting scientists to think of all the other places in the Solar System where they would like to use radar sounders.
A technique being used by the European Space Agency at Mars could prove invaluable for studying the stability of Antarctic ice sheets here on Earth. In preparation, a new ESA study is seeking to refine the radar method for use on our planet.
ESA PR 24-2008. The European Space Agency and Astrium today signed a €195 million contract to provide the first Sentinel-2 earth observation satellite, devoted to monitoring the land environment, as part of the European GMES programme. As prime contractor, Astrium is responsible for the design, development and integration of the satellite, which will perform a high-end multi-spectral optical imaging mission.
