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News archive

Status reports from Baikonur
All times are in CEST (UT + 2 hours)Wednesday 9 August 15:20 "The team are very happy!" said Alberto Gianolio from Baikonur. "The injection went as expected, the solar aspect angle is nominal and all units are on the prime chain - no switchovers were required. There has been nothing unexpected, telemetry is being received and commands sent to the spacecraft." The Baikonur team are now on the move, and reporting continues fromESA's Operations Centre in Darmstadt, from where the 4 Clusters are controlled.
Published: 9 August 2000
Universal praise for successful launch of second Cluster pair
Two successful launches in less than a month. That is the proud record of the European Space Agency's Cluster programme and the Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle provided by the French-Russian Starsem consortium after today's blast-off from Baikonur Cosmodrome."I am very proud to let you know that all four satellites are now in orbit," said Professor Roger Bonnet, ESA Director of Science. "The launch today was absolutely nominal. After so many years of expectations, ESA has kept its promises to the scientists."
Published: 9 August 2000
Soyuz/Cluster rollout to launch pad completed
Following the successful completion of the Launch Readiness Review and of the Transfer Readiness Review on 5 August, the go-ahead for the final launch preparations was given by the Russian State Commission on the evening of the same day.
Published: 6 August 2000
SOHO improves space weather forecasting
This release is issued today by the press office for the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly.Safe operation of the International Space Station depends on timely warnings of eruptions on the Sun, Dr Paal Brekke will tell a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Manchester, UK. On 11 August he will report on the race between the Sun's capacity to harm high-technology systems, and the ability of space scientists to warn engineers and astronauts of bad weather in space, due to solar storms. Dr Brekke is a Norwegian solar physicist serving as the European Space Agency's Deputy Project Scientist for the ESA-NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, which is now the world's chief watchdog for outbursts on the Sun.
Published: 3 August 2000
Summer School Alpbach 'Extragalactic Astronomy & Cosmology from Space'
What do Students see as Next Projects in Space Astronomy?56 students from among the member states of the European Space Agency were attending the Summer School from 18-27 July in the small mountain village of Alpbach in Tyrol. The Summer School participants were set the task of defining future X-ray and gamma ray as well as infrared missions.
Published: 2 August 2000
Cluster Project Manager looks back to a perfect launch
Two weeks after the first pair of Cluster spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Project Manager John Ellwood looked back contentedly on the successful completion of the first act in this two-part launch drama.
Published: 1 August 2000
Rover to join Beagle on Mars
Two landers are due to descend to the surface of Mars within a month of each other in late 2003, early 2004. Last week, NASA announced that it would be sending a rover to the red planet. Beagle 2, the Mars Express lander, is due to take up its position on the Martian surface about one month before NASA's rover lands.
Published: 1 August 2000
Second Cluster launch will complete the space quartet
N0 51-2000 - Paris, 31 July 2000After the successful launch of the first two Cluster satellites Salsa and Samba - on 16 July, followed by a perfect insertion into their operational orbits, scientists around the world are eagerly awaiting the launch of the second Cluster pair from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Published: 1 August 2000
ICEUM4 recommendations on Lunar exploration presented at COSPAR
The recommendations of the ICEUM4 conference have been presented at the General Assembly of COSPAR (Committee for Space Research) in Warsaw on 18-24 July. The ICEUM4 reports were given during a Lunar Exploration session, a special symposium on Public understanding of Science as well as in the COSPAR Commissions B (Planetary sciences) and F ( Life sciences in space). COSPAR agreed to co-sponsor the 5th ICEUM meeting during the COSPAR/IAF World Space Congress to take place in Houston in October 2002.
Published: 31 July 2000
Huygens sixth in-flight checkout report
The sixth Huygens in-flight checkout; 28 July 2000
Published: 29 July 2000
Look for Comet Linear
It may not be as spectacular as Comets Hyakutake or Hale-Bopp in 1996-97,butComet Linear is currently the best show in town for European observers.But dont waste any time. The icy intruder, which is making its first visitto the innerSolar System and has just passed within 114 million km (71 million miles) ofthe Sun,seems to have broken up in the last few days and may rapidly fade fromview.
Published: 28 July 2000
6th Huygens checkout on 28 July
The 6th Huygens in-flight checkout will be executed on Friday 28 July from 16:00 GMT to 20:00 GMT.The Huygens activities will be carried out while Cassini will be in view of the Goldstone Deep Space Antenna.The Huygens telemetry data will be routed via the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, to the Huygens Probe Operations Centre (HPOC) at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany. Arrival of the first data in HPOC is expected at around 17:00 GMT (19:00 Local Time).
Published: 27 July 2000
Global involvement in Europe's Cluster Mission
The Cluster mission to explore the magnetosphere has a genuineinternational flavour, in more ways than one.
Published: 26 July 2000
Amateur astronomers capture Salsa and Samba dancing in the sky
Two amateur astronomers from the Starkenburg observatory in Heppenheim,near Darmstadt in Germany, have succeeded in photographing the first twoCluster satellites, Salsa and Samba, during their daily dance around theEarth.
Published: 25 July 2000
New web articles about Mars Express instruments
A series of new articles about the Mars Express instruments is now available on this web site. Based on interviews with Principal Investigators, the articles describe the instruments and the science they plan to accomplish.
Published: 25 July 2000
Software to plan Mars Express mission orbit by orbit
Scientists building instruments for Mars Express are taking delivery this month of a software package to help them plan how and when to operate their instruments during each of the 2293 orbits the spacecraft will make during its first 687 Earth-days of operation. "The mission has to be planned orbit by orbit: there's no other way. STAT (Science Timeline Analysis Tool) is a very comprehensive software package for planning science operations," says Agustin Chicarro, Mars Express project scientist.
Published: 25 July 2000
Salsa and Samba in perfect step
After one of the most complex series of manoeuvres ever carried out byEarth-orbiting spacecraft, the first Cluster pair have successfully reachedtheir final elliptical orbit. Salsa (FM 6) and Samba (FM 7) are now dancingin step between 16 869 km (perigee) and 121 098 km (apogee) above theEarth.
Published: 21 July 2000
Cluster pair prepare for higher things
Things are looking up for the first pair of Cluster spacecraft as theygradually move further and further from the Earth.So far, the spacecraft have successfully completed three of the four mainengine burns required to raise the apogee (highest point) of their orbits.
Published: 19 July 2000
Declaration of the 4th International Conference on the Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon (ICEUM4)
Over 150 people gathered at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, to discuss the prospects for lunar exploration, development and utilisation. We found that interest in these topics has been significantly advanced by recent discoveries made by lunar orbiting missions and will continue to advance as new missions to the Moon are implemented. The ESA SMART-1 and the Japanese Lunar-A and SELENE missions are under development and government and private organisations are proposing other lunar missions.
Published: 18 July 2000
Status reports from Baikonur/ESOC (first launch)
Status reports from ESOC, ESA's operations centre in Darmstadt (D).The Cluster team have left Baikonur and reporting continues from the controlroom at ESOC. All times are in Central European Summer Time (CEST). Wednesday, 26 July at 9:30 CESTASPOC + CIS cover openingThe covers have been successfully opened on the CIS and ASPOC experiments on both Salsa andSamba. In addition, electric verifications have been performed on ASPOC and anupload of tables on CIS. The instruments are now switched off again, waiting the startof commissioning 10 days after the second launch.
Published: 18 July 2000
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