News archive

News archive

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
INFO 19-1999: Lifting the veil on the X-ray universe
X-ray astronomy is a relatively young branch of astrophysics which today is one of the most competitive and popular. In the few decades since the discovery of X-ray radiation from cosmic X-ray sources, this field has grown at an astonishing rate leading to the identification of numerous exciting new phenomena.
Published: 23 November 1999
Integral and Rosetta on show in Turin
In Turin today the Italian satellite builder Alenia Aerospazio presented two ESA spacecraft that will explore the near and far Universe: Integral, the gamma-ray observatory, will gather the most energetic radiation coming from distant objects. Rosetta, the comet chaser, will bring new insights in the formation of our solar system.
Published: 23 November 1999
Integral and Rosetta on show in Turin
In Turin today the Italian satellite builder Alenia Aerospazio presented two ESA spacecraft that will explore the near and far Universe: Integral, the gamma-ray observatory, will gather the most energetic radiation coming from distant objects. Rosetta, the comet chaser, will bring new insights in the formation of our solar system.
Published: 23 November 1999
SOHO sees the Mercury transit
This Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) image shows the planet Mercury passing in front of the solar corona on 15 November 1999, as seen from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The planet is seen as a featureless dark spot just above the solar disk.
Published: 22 November 1999
Working towards the December launch
The XMM launch campaign has been proceeding smoothly, since the spacecraft arrived in French Guiana on 23 September. A continuous account of the campaign, direct from the XMM team in Kourou, can be found on this website.
Published: 22 November 1999
Living the Leonids
"From here the peak was around 2200 meteors at 02:13", reported an excited Michael Schmidhuber, ESA's man aboard the international plane at 03:08 UT, calling in from somewhere over Greece to the waiting scientists gathered at ESTEC. First pictures from the two ESA science teams in Spain began to arrive at 02:39 UT. At 02:00 UT Jo Zender reported from Calar Alto: "We are now seeing more than 250 meteors per hour, more than one every half minute."
Published: 17 November 1999
The Leonids are back: is a storm brewing?
For updates throughout the night see Leonids 99 including new video interviews and the sound of the meteors. You can also put your questions direct to ESA's experts in a live chat forum this evening!Will the night sky be illuminated with thousands of shooting stars - known to scientists as the Leonid meteors - on the night of 17/18 November? No-one knows for sure, but some experts are predicting a dramatic display over Western Europe which will rival any millennium celebrations.
Published: 16 November 1999
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