News archive

News archive

PR 52-1999: European astronauts set for Hubble challenge
Two of the European Space Agency's most experienced astronauts are preparing to board the Space Shuttle Discovery as part of the international crew to be launched on an end-of-the-year mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
Published: 8 December 1999
SOHO set for a return to normal operations
SOHO is performing maneuvres in preparation for a return toNormal Mode this evening. All instruments are in a safeconfiguration for the maneuvres.Yesterday, a momentum management was performed prior to aroll back to the nominal pointing position. The spacecraft was left inRoll Maneuvre Wheels mode for the night.
Published: 8 December 1999
Hubble Servicing Mission ESA Monitoring Centre
The essential events during Hubble Servicing Mission 3A (SM3A),currently scheduled for launch Sunday 12 December, will be covered livefrom the ESA Science web pages. Hourly reports during the mostinteresting parts of the mission will appear in 'The Hubble ServicingMission ESA Monitoring Centre', as well as access to a chat forum wherethe progress of the mission will be among the hot topics.
Published: 7 December 1999
Mars Express to learn lessons from Polar Lander loss
"Our hearts go out to our colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory over the probable loss of Mars Polar Lander," Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express project manager said today. "But risk will always be part of any space mission. We at Mars Express will forge ahead, taking on board all the lessons that we can from the polar lander failure."
Published: 7 December 1999
Mars Express to learn lessons from Polar Lander loss
"Our hearts go out to our colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory over the probable loss of Mars Polar Lander," Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express project manager said today. "But risk will always be part of any space mission. We at Mars Express will forge ahead, taking on board all the lessons that we can from the polar lander failure."
Published: 7 December 1999
Setting the stage for the launch of XMM
Whilst the engineers and technicians are making final preparations for the XMM launch on 10 December, ESA is setting the stage for the public and media launch coverage, both in French Guiana and in Europe.
Published: 7 December 1999
SOHO prepares to return to normal operations
Today and tomorrow, SOHO will be performing maneuvres in preparationfor a return to Normal Mode tomorrow evening. All instruments are ina safe configuration for the maneuvres.
Published: 7 December 1999
Mars Express leaps approval hurdle
The technical design for Mars Express took an important step towards approval last month. A team of 15 space engineers from ESTEC, who are not involved in the project, gave the design the thumbs up after spending a week scrutinising it at the prime contractor's, Matra Marconi Space (MMS), Toulouse. "The team went to Matra to turn the design upside down and find weak points. They didn't find any show stoppers," says Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager.
Published: 6 December 1999
Rosetta STM arrives at ESTEC
After a five day journey across Europe, the Structural and Thermal Model(STM) of the Rosetta spacecraft has arrived safely at the European SpaceResearch and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in The Netherlands.
Published: 5 December 1999
SOHO in CRP mode until 8 December
SOHO is in Coarse Roll Pointing (CRP) mode at a roll angle of -76degrees. The current plan is to leave the spacecraft in thatconfiguration until Wednesday 8 December. Some instruments (MDI, EIT,LASCO and SWAN) are performing observations with some precautionary procedures (so-called 'safing flags') in place.
Published: 5 December 1999
Eta Carinae - ISO tells the true story
In 1843 the stellar system Eta Carinae suffered a violent explosion which caused it to become, in just a few decades, an amazingly beautiful nebula with two huge round blobs of material symmetrically distributed. For years astronomers have been looking for the cause of the explosion, and to explain the strange hourglass shape. A team of astronomers using ESA's infrared space telescope, ISO, have now succeeded, putting the blame firmly on a previously undetected very massive 'donut' of dust which squeezes the nebula at its centre. They publish their discovery in the current issue of the journal Nature (2 December).
Published: 2 December 1999
Europe prepares its own Mars mission, as NASA's probe lands on Mars
Just before NASA's Mars Polar Lander bounces to a gentle halt on Mars tomorrow, it will jettison two small probes that will crash into the planet and penetrate its surface. Four years later, in December 2003, another probe will land on the red planet to take a look underground. Called Beagle 2, it will hitch a ride to Mars on Europe's Mars Express mission. NASA's probes will be looking mainly for water and ice, but Beagle 2 will also be searching for the signs of life.
Published: 1 December 1999
SOHO back out of ESR
As of Thursday 2 December, 19:42 UT, SOHO is no longer in Emergency Sun Reacquisition (ESR) mode, after a successful transition to CoarseRoll Pointing (CRP) mode.
Published: 1 December 1999
SOHO recovery actions continue
On Tuesday 1 December at 18:46 UT another SOHO spacecraftemergency was declared in order to secure Deep Space Network (DSN) contact with 34-metre antennas, after amanual triggering of the Emergency Sun Reacquisition (ESR) mode at about 18:40 UT.At about 18:10 UT, SOHO was in the middle of astationkeeping (orbit trim) manoeuvreRoll Pointing (CRP) mode was invoked automatically and the thruster burns were aborted. The cause of this anomaly is yet to be determined.
Published: 1 December 1999
SOHO ESR ends
As of Monday 29 November, 18:35 UT, SOHO is no longer in Emergency SunReacquisition (ESR) mode. The SOHO spacecraft emergency that was declaredto ensure adequate Deep Space Network (DSN) coverage has officiallyended. Instruments are in safe configuration and appear to beunscathed from the episode.
Published: 30 November 1999
SOHO recovery continues
Recovery of the SOHO spacecraft to normal science operations is proceeding with maneuvres to compensate for stay of about 21 hours in ESR mode, which perturbed the angularmomentum, orbit and roll of the spacecraft.
Published: 30 November 1999
SOHO in safe mode
Over the Thanksgiving weekend the joint ESA/NASA SOHO recovery team stepped into action once again when the SOHO spacecraft switched to Emergency Sun Reacquisition mode(ESR) on Sunday 28 November. ESR is the safe mode that is automatically triggered to protect the spacecraft in the event of any unforeseen circumstance.
Published: 28 November 1999
G-modes detected in interplanetary magnetic field?
New evidence that gravity waves originating in the Suns core may leave their imprint in the solar wind was presented to last months meeting of the Ulysses science working team.
Published: 25 November 1999
INFO 20-1999: Hubble Space Telescope: The Telescope, the Observations & the Servicing Mission
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a joint ESA/NASA project launched into a low-Earth orbit 600 km above the ground in 1990 by Space Shuttle mission STS-31. During its first nine years of operations HST has become one of the most important science projects ever.
Published: 25 November 1999
Cluster Quartet beat the blizzard
ESA's mission to study space weather has successfully overcome moredown-to-Earth weather problems. Despite major transportation difficultiescaused by a three-day-long blizzard, all four Cluster II satellites werefinally gathered together today for the first and only time in Europe.
Published: 23 November 1999
Page 122 of 145
— 20 Items per Page
Showing 2,421 - 2,440 of 2,884 results.
6-May-2021 13:46 UT

ShortUrl Portlet

Shortcut URL

https://sci.esa.int/p/QwQ7rr8