ESA Science & Technology - Status Report Archive
Status report archive
Status report archive
Spacecraft StatusThe spacecraft is now in its 216th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. The electric propulsion engine was switched off on 30 January 2004 for a period of three weeks to allow instrument commissioning activities to take place.
Published: 13 February 2004
Mission Status INTEGRAL routine operations continue to run smoothly except for an interruption due to high solar activity between 2003 October 26 to November 7, during which time the instruments were switched-off. This interval included an X28 solar flare . one of the brightest seen this century. Other than an occasional loss of a guide star due...
Published: 10 February 2004
Mission Status XMM-Newton operations continue to run smoothly. Five full revolutions (around 0.5 Msec of observing time) were lost due to the solar outbursts from 26 October to 7 November but there was no damage to the satellite. The use of the Santiago antenna from 15 - 25 Dec (Kourou was required in support of Mars Express) led to some more...
Published: 10 February 2004
Mission status The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is performing nominally. Cassini has entered the Saturn approach science phase and regular distant observations of Saturn have started. A new series of Saturn images was obtained with the Orbiter narrow angle camera in December. Coordinated observations of Saturn's aurorae by the Hubble Space...
Published: 10 February 2004
Active Archive Phase activities The ISO Data Centre Active Archive Phase activities continue to run smoothly. A new version of the ISO Data Archive (IDA V.6.1) was released, associated with a new interoperability mechanism, fully compliant with the Virtual Observatories standards. This was demonstrated at the XIII ADASS conference hosted by CDS,...
Published: 10 February 2004
Mission Status The HST observatory is operating nominally with all instruments functioning. The Phase I deadline for the 13th Cycle of HST observations is on the 23 January 2004 with the peer review taking place in Baltimore at the end of March. Notification to the PIs of successful proposals is on 4 April.
Published: 10 February 2004
Spacecraft StatusThe spacecraft is now in its 207th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. As in previous weeks, the ion drive has only generated thrust around the perigee point to fine-tune the altitude of the apogee point. This strategy has produced a noticeable increase in apogee height, see plot below, which is...
Published: 4 February 2004
Mission Status The spacecraft status is nominal, with the High Gain Antenna (HGA) Z-axis in a fixed position. With the HGA Z-axis parked, SOHO continues to experience "keyhole" periods every three months. Manoeuvres (including a 180° roll) are now executed during keyholes. With station keeping manoeuvres every three months, the burns...
Published: 3 February 2004
We are just starting the fourth year of Cluster operations. The spacecraft are working nominally and the instruments are returning data as expected from the Master Science Plan. The data return was, on average, 99.6 % between September and December 2003. The VILSPA-1 and Maspalomas ground stations are operating nominally. The separation distance...
Published: 3 February 2004
Mission StatusThe spacecraft and all scientific instruments are in good health. Preparations are underway for the Jupiter Distant Encounter campaign that will take place between the end of January and mid-March 2004.
Published: 26 January 2004
The first Double Star spacecraft was successfully launched from Xichang, Southern China, on 29 December 2003 at 19:06 UT. The final operational orbit is 570 by 78 970 km, with an inclination of 28.5 degrees. Due to an over-performance of the upper stage the apogee is about 12 000 km more than expected.
Published: 26 January 2004
Overall Mission StatusThe Mars Express orbiter was successfully inserted into orbit around Mars on 25 December 2003. Since then several manoeuvres have been performed using the spacecraft's main engine (plane turn manoeuvre and apocentre reductions) and several further manoeuvres will be performed, using the on-board thrusters, until the mapping...
Published: 23 January 2004
The spacecraft is now in its 194th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. As in previous weeks, the ion drive has only generated thrust around the perigee point to fine-tune the altitude of the apogee point. This strategy has produced a noticeable increase in apogee height, see plot below, which is necessary to...
Published: 21 January 2004
The spacecraft is now in its 187th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. In order to fine tune the altitude of the apogee point, required to minimise the length of the eclipses due to occur in March, the ion drive is currently being used only when the spacecraft is around perigee. This strategy will last until the...
Published: 15 January 2004
The spacecraft is now in its 176th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. The first mission target, namely to exit the most dangerous part of the radiation belts, has been achieved! The pericentre altitude (the closest distance of the spacecraft from the centre of the Earth) will reach the prelaunch target of 20 000...
Published: 6 January 2004
Overall status, current activities and planned activitiesThe spacecraft is now in its 169th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. The spacecraft has been functioning in electric propulsion mode for the whole week, continuously thrusting since the flame-out and subsequent entry into safe mode last week. This has...
Published: 30 December 2003
Overall status, current activities and planned activitiesThe spacecraft is now in its 158th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally. Since the procedure to automatically re-start the engine after a flame-out has been uploaded to the on-board software, the spacecraft has been continuously operated in electric propulsion...
Published: 23 December 2003
Overall status, current activities and planned activitiesSMART-1 has recently broken through the barrier of 1000 hours of cumulated thrust! This happened at precisely 20:00 UTC on 11 December 2003. The spacecraft is now in its 150th orbit, in good status and with all functions performing nominally.
Published: 16 December 2003
Overall status, current activities and planned activitiesThe spacecraft is now in its 139th orbit, in good operational status and with all functions performing nominally. As previously, the spacecraft was operated in electric propulsion mode almost continuously.
Published: 9 December 2003
Overall status, current activities and planned activitiesThe spacecraft is now in its 130th orbit, in good health and all its functions are performing nominally. As in previous weeks, the spacecraft was operated in electric propulsion mode almost continuously. We have, however, experienced three flame-outs.
Published: 4 December 2003
—
20 Items per Page