Tag: ESA

ESA Targeting Wednesday Night for Final Launch of its First-Generation Vega Rocket

Spaceflight Now reports, “Update 7:05 a.m. EDT: Arianespace announced that the mission is scrubbed for a Tuesday night launch attempt due to “electrical issues” and is working towards an opportunity on Wednesday, Sept. 4. The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to complete its transition to its Vega-C rocket with the final launch of its first-generation Vega rocket. The mission, dubbed VV24, will carry an Earth-imaging satellite to a sun-synchronous orbit.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

Proba-3 Mission Set to Create ‘Solar Eclipses on Demand’

The Washington Post reports, “A space-exploration organization solved a technological feat more than a decade in the making — launching a pair of satellites capable of creating artificial solar eclipses. It is considered a breakthrough development in solar physics, according to scientists and the European Space Agency, which oversaw the Proba-3 mission and its launch last Thursday in India. Through a precise flying formation, the satellites will create a six-hour window for scientists to research the sun’s outer atmosphere — an opportunity previously restricted.”
Full Story (Washington Post)

Vega C Successfully Launches for First Time in Nearly Two Years

Space News reports, “A Vega C successfully launched an Earth observation satellite Dec. 5 in the rocket’s first flight since a failure nearly two years ago. The Vega C lifted off from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 4:20 p.m. Eastern. The launch was previously scheduled for Dec. 4 but delayed a day because a problem with the mobile launch gantry at the pad.”
Full Story (Space News)

 

 

 

 

 

Video

Vega-C rocket launches Sentinel-1C satellite in return to flight, Dec. 5, 2024 (Launch at 37:02 mark)
(VideoFromSpace; YouTube)

ESA’s Ariane 6 Moved to Launch Pad for First Flight

SpaceWatch.Global reports, “The ESA has transferred Ariane 6’s upper composite with the payloads it will launch to Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The upper part of the rocket journeyed from the encapsulation hall in Europe’s Spaceport to the launch pad in the morning and placed on top of the rocket … Ariane 6 is on schedule to launch on July 9”
Full Story (SpaceWatch.Global)

First Launch of Ariane 6 Set for July 9

Aviation Week reports, “After last year’s announcement of the June 15-30 window for the first flight of the Ariane 6 rocket, the European Space Agency has set a launch date of July 9 for the delayed program. European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher made the announcement June 5 at the ILA Berlin air…”
Full Story (Aviation Week – Subscription Publication)

ESA’s JUICE Jupiter Probe Glides Past Moon in Historic Flyby

Scientific American reports, “Europe’s JUICE Jupiter probe swung by the moon for a ‘gravity assist’ on Monday (Aug. 19), and it snapped some photos to commemorate the historic encounter.  JUICE (short for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) came within a mere 465 miles (750 kilometers) of the lunar surface on Monday evening, on the first leg of an unprecedented gravity-assist doubleheader.”
Full Story (Scientific American)

JUICE Deploys Radar Antenna

Space News reports that the European Space Agency said that, “after weeks of effort to loosen a stuck pin,” the JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) successfully deployed its 16-meter-long antenna. Engineers tried to loosen the pin via shaking the craft using thrusters orienting it with sunlight to warm the antenna, but it didn’t deploy “until controllers fired a non-explosive actuator in the jammed bracket.” The antenna is part of the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration sensor, which is designed to probe up to nine kilometers beneath Europa’s, Ganymede’s, and Callisto’s surfaces.
Full Story (Space News)

NASA Secures Partner Cooperation on ISS Through 2028

Florida Today reports that the International Space Station “will remain in operation through 2028 with the full cooperation of all partners, NASA announced last week.” The United States, Japan, Canada, and countries from the European Space Agency “have committed to extending their participation aboard the space station until 2030.” Additionally, Russia has said it will remain committed to station operations through at least 2028. Last year, NASA “announced the lifespan extension of the space station until 2030, at which point it is planned to be retired.”
Full Story (Florida Today)

ESA Readies for ‘Assisted Reentry’ of Aeolus

Space News reports that the European Space Agency “is in the final stages of performing an ‘assisted reentry’ of an Earth science spacecraft, an effort that will attempt to bring the satellite down over the ocean in a little more than a week.” A series of maneuvers “will lower the perigee of the Aeolus spacecraft to enable a reentry, projected over the Atlantic Ocean, on July 28.” The maneuvers “are intended to minimize any chance that debris from the spacecraft that survives reentry would land in populated areas.”
Full Story (Space News)

Vega Rocket Lifts Off in First Mission Since November

Spaceflight Now reports that the first launch of Arianespace’s Vega Rocket “since an in-flight failure nearly one year ago has been postponed to no earlier than Monday night due to unfavorable upper level winds over the Vega launch base in Kourou, French Guiana.” The rocket will carry 53 small satellites for “21 customers in 13 countries, including European Space Agency member states,” the US, Canada, Argentina, Thailand, and Israel. Whatever the date of the launch, the liftoff will be scheduled for 9:51:10 p.m. EDT.
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

Prominent Space Luminaries from DLR, ESA, NASA, and More Added to 2023 ASCEND

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 29, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) today announced several prominent space luminaries who have been added to the three-day program at 2023 ASCEND, 23–25 October, Caesars Forum, Las Vegas. ASCEND is the world’s premier outcomes-focused, interdisciplinary space event designed to accelerate building our off-world future.

These newly confirmed speakers cut across the international, civil, commercial, and national security space sectors, including:

  • Peter Gräf, Director for Applications & Science, DLR
  • John M. Grunsfeld, Endless Frontier Associates, LLC; former NASA Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, and former NASA astronaut
  • The Honorable Steven J. Isakowitz, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Aerospace Corporation
  • Janet Kavandi, President and Chief Science Officer, Sierra Space
  • Col. Richard Kniseley, Senior Materiel Leader, Commercial Space Office Lead, U.S. Space Force
  • Sandra Magnus, Chief Engineer for the Traffic Coordination System for Space, Office of Space Commerce, Department of Commerce, and former NASA astronaut
  • Col. Pamela Melroy, USAF (Ret.), Deputy Administrator, NASA
  • Daniel Neuenschwander, Director for Human and Robotic Exploration, ESA
  • George T. Whitesides, Partner, Convective Capital, and former CEO, Virgin Galactic

Registration for the 2023 ASCEND event is open now. Journalists from around the world are invited to cover 2023 ASCEND; press passes are available for credentialed media by request.

Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About ASCEND
Powered by AIAA, ASCEND promotes the collaborative, interdisciplinary, outcomes-driven community of professionals, students, and enthusiasts around the world who are accelerating humanity’s progress toward our off-world future! For more information, visit ascend.events, or follow ASCEND on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.