Status Report Archive

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Report for the period 27 November to 17 December 2010

This report covers 21 days of Rosetta mission operations. The final payload checkout before the hibernation phase was successfully conducted during the reporting period; all the activities were conducted according to plan and only minor actions remain to be performed in the coming months.

Report for the period 7 November to 4 December 2010 (week 45 - week 48)

The reporting period, covering four weeks of Venus Express mission operations, was devoted to routine science activities.

Report for period 18 November to 9 December 2010

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected.

Report for the period 15 to 26 November 2010

This report covers 12 days of Rosetta mission operations. During the reporting period, the final RF test for the entry into deep-space hibernation mode (DSHM) was successfully conducted, confirming the capability of the ground segment to command the hibernation entry with back-up options.

Report for Period 10 October - 6 November 2010 (week 41 - week 44)

The reporting period, covering four weeks of Venus Express mission operations, was devoted to routine science activities and the fourth Atmosphere Drag Experiment campaign (ADE #4).

Report for period 20 October to 18 November 2010

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected. The second Direct Liquid Contents Measurement has been successfully performed. The approved proposals for first Open Time (OT1) observations have been announced.

Report for the period 23 October to 14 November 2010

This report covers 23 days of Rosetta mission operations. During the reporting period the spacecraft has moved out of solar conjunction and is now configured in active cruise mode in preparation of the final payload checkout and the first rendezvous manoeuvre. The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) provided additional support to the radio science investigations during this phase.

Report for the period 25 September to 22 October 2010

This report covers 28 days of Rosetta mission operations. During the reporting period, the spacecraft has been going through a superior solar conjunction, which will end on 31 October. During this phase, the spacecraft was configured in active cruise mode, but with very limited ground station communications due to the effects of the Sun on the RF signal transmission. The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) provided additional support to the radio science investigations during this phase.

Report for Period 12 September - 9 October 2010 (week 37 - week 40)

The reporting period, covering four weeks of Venus Express mission operations, was devoted primarily to routine science activities. In addition, a number of preparatory activities were carried out for the next atmospheric drag experiment campaign, and two orbit control manoeuvres were performed to lower the apocentre altitude of the spacecraft's orbit.

Report for period 23 September to 20 October 2010

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected.

Report for the period 28 August to 24 September 2010

This report covers 28 days of Rosetta mission operations. On 3 September, the performance of the solar arrays was tested by tilting them with respect to the Sun direction, simulating deep-space conditions. Data have been acquired and are being processed; a preliminary analysis indicates that performance was nominal.

Report for period 24 August to 22 September 2010

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected.

Report for Period 15 August to 11 September 2010 (week 33 - week 36)

The reporting period, covering four weeks of Venus Express mission operations, was devoted to routine science activities and included the last quadrature operations. The swap from high gain antenna 1 (HGA1) to HGA2 and the associated 180° flip of the spacecraft around its Z-axis were successfully executed on 15 August. On 21 August, the regular DDOR measurements were made. The quadrature phase ended on 26 August. A routine orbit control manoeuvre was performed on 28 August. The current eclipse season, which started already on 30 July, will end at the start of the next reporting period.

Report for the period 31 July to 27 August 2010.

This report covers 28 days of Rosetta operations. During the reporting period the spacecraft remained configured in active cruise mode in preparation for the new test and validation campaign required for the deep space phase of the mission. The main activities were the high-gain antenna (HGA) strobing test and the low-gain antenna (LGA) telecommand link test performed on 20 August.

Report for period 23 June to 23 August 2010

Mission operations of the Herschel space observatory continued nominally during the reporting period, with the spacecraft and subsystems all performing as expected. The first Open Time (OT1) Call for non Key Programme observing proposals closed on 22 July 2010. A total of 576 proposals were received.

Report for Period 18 July to 14 August 2010 (week 29 - week 32)

The reporting period, covering four weeks of Venus Express mission operations, was devoted to routine science activities. On 21 July the spacecraft entered a new quadrature phase that will last until 26 August. On 28 July a few anomalies were observed relating to the solid state mass memory (SSMM), which were solved by a warm restart of the SSMM. As part of the SSMM anomaly recovery a spacecraft safe mode was commanded on 30 July. After exit from the safe mode nominal operations were resumed. On 30 July another eclipse season started.

Report for the period 11 July to 30 July 2010

This report covers 20 days of Rosetta mission operations. Payload operations associated with the flyby of asteroid Lutetia were completed on 11 July and the last three weeks have been mainly dedicated to downlinking the large volume of science data acquired. All the data have now been downlinked. The spacecraft is now cruising towards the aphelion of its current orbit, which will be reached in October 2012. Work to reconstruct the relative trajectory of the flyby is continuing.

Report for Period 20 June to 17 July 2010 (week 25 - week 28)

The reporting period, covering four weeks of Venus Express mission operations, was devoted to routine science activities and has been nominal on the spacecraft side. The mission's ninth Earth occultation season, which started on 30 April 2010, has concluded on 11 July 2010. The regular DDOR measurements were performed on 24 June.

Report for Period 5 July to 10 July 2010

On 10 July 2010 (DOY 191) at 15:44:57 UTC, Rosetta successfully flew past asteroid (21) Lutetia at a distance of 3160 km and with a relative speed of 15 km/s. The spectacular flyby manoeuvre was conducted as planned with the spacecraft autonomously tracking the asteroid. A large subset of the payload complement was activated for scientific operations and unique images of Lutetia were released within hours after acquisition and posted on the ESA web pages.

Report for Period 28 June to 4 July 2010

This report covers one week of Rosetta mission operations, which was fully dedicated to the refinement of the orbit determination in view of Rosetta's flyby of asteroid (21) Lutetia on 10 July 2010. Radiometric data and optical images are regularly processed to assess the spacecraft's trajectory relative to that of the asteroid. The optical navigation campaign is proceeding with daily observations by Rosetta's cameras and the permanent pointing to Lutetia.