ESA PR 05-2008. With NASA’s recent confirmation of the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on Thursday 7 February, ESA astronauts Hans Schlegel, of Germany, and Leopold Eyharts, of France, are set to deliver ESA’s Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station.
The industrial development of BepiColombo, Europe’s first mission to Mercury, has been officially kicked off. The prime contract, awarded by ESA to Astrium, was signed today during a ceremony that took place in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
This Envisat image highlights Burma/Myanmar (officially the Union of Myanmar). With a total area of 678 500 sq km, Burma is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia.
The new 5.5m tracking station on Santa Maria island was formally inaugurated into the ESTRACK network yesterday. The station will be used to track Ariane launch trajectories and will also be capable of tracking Vega and Soyuz, as well as ongoing Earth observation missions, including ESA’s ERS-2 and Envisat.
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Until now, Mars has generally been regarded as a desert world, where a visiting astronaut would be surprised to see clouds scudding across the orange sky. However, new results show that the arid planet possesses high-level clouds that are sufficiently dense to cast a shadow on the surface.
Fuelling of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle has started at Europe’s Spaceport. ATV is being loaded with Russian refuelling propellant destined for the International Space Station. After a month of fuelling operations, the launch and maiden voyage of the first European resupply spaceship is scheduled for the second half of February.
Today ESA’s Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain, met with the press at ESA Headquarters in Paris for the annual press briefing.
Listen to the audio of the conference:
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The appearance of a very special solar spot on the sun surface a few days ago, signalled to scientists around the world that a new solar cycle had begun. This solar spot also produced two solar blasts.
NASA has announced 7 February 2008 as the target launch date for Space Shuttle Atlantis’ STS-122 mission to carry the European Columbus laboratory into space. For the latest updates, please consult the NASA website and the ESA Columbus blog.
Excitement is rising as ESA is in the final stages of preparation for the first collaborative space mission with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Chandrayaan-1 will study the Moon in great detail and be the first Indian scientific mission leaving the Earth’s vicinity.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has revealed a never-before-seen optical alignment in space: a pair of glowing rings, one nestled inside the other like a bull’s-eye pattern. The double-ring pattern is caused by the complex bending of light from two distant galaxies strung directly behind a foreground massive galaxy, like three beads on a string.
This Envisat image highlights the Sao Francisco River in eastern Brazil. With a course of some 2914 km, the Sao Francisco (visible on the right) is the fourth largest river in South America and the largest river located wholly within Brazil.
ESA PR 3-2008. The European Space Agency and Astrium jointly invite the media to attend a press conference on the occasion of the industrial contract signature of BepiColombo, the first European mission to Mercury. The event will be held at Astrium Friedrichshafen on 18 January 2008.
A new station will join ESA’s tracking network on 17 January 2008. Located on the Portuguese island of Santa Maria in the Azores, the station will track launches from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, as they pass overhead at 28 000 km per hour.
The shape of the mysterious cloud of antimatter in the central regions of the Milky Way has been revealed by ESA’s orbiting gamma-ray observatory Integral. The unexpectedly lopsided shape is a new clue to the origin of the antimatter.
XMM-Newton has given astronomers and physics a valuable new insight into the most exotic stars in the Universe. Known as neutron stars, the composition of these extremely dense stellar objects has always been something of a puzzle. Now, XMM-Newton has revealed that they almost certainly resemble over-sized atomic nuclei.
This Envisat image shows the northern part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, a northeastern projection of Central America that is located between the Gulf of Mexico to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east.
