News archive

News archive

Assembling a spacecraft by taking it to pieces may sound rather illogical,but that is exactly what has happened to the Rosetta Structural and ThermalModel (STM). Since its delivery to the Alenia Aerospazio plant in Turinduring August, the STM was separated into two sections - the payload module(PM), which will carry the scientific experiments, and the service module(SM) which will house the satellite's main subsystems. Over the next fewmonths, engineers will be working in two shifts in order to carry out theassembly, integration and test programmes on each module before they are once again united in late October.
Published: 20 September 1999
It may not seem much of a journey compared with a multi-million kilometre space trek, but ESA's Rosetta spacecraft today completed its first small step along the road to a rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen in 2011. After a 2000 km hike across Europe, the Structural and Thermal Model (STM) platform structure of the Rosetta orbiter was safely delivered this morning to Alenia Aerospazio's Turin plant.
Published: 18 August 1999
Deep in the Finnish countryside, the Structural and Thermal Model (STM) ofthe Rosetta orbiter is nearing completion. At the Finavitec factory in thevillage of Halli, some 250 km north of Helsinki, engineers are addingequipment panels to the spacecraft's main structure before shipment toItaly next month.
Published: 21 July 1999
More than 100 scientists and engineers from all over Europe and the UnitedStates came together at the Royal Society in London 1-2 July to shareprogress reports on the Rosetta mission to Comet Wirtanen.The overall picture presented by the project management team and thePrincipal Scientific Investigators (PIs) was that the mission is now wellon the way towards meeting its strict launch deadline of January 2003.
Published: 2 July 1999
The final design of the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet chaser wasrevealed today at the Royal Society in London when a 1:4 scale (7.1mdiameter) model of the giant spacecraft was unveiled by ESA's ScienceDirector, Professor Roger Bonnet.
Published: 1 July 1999
In 2011, after an eight-year trek through the inner Solar System, the Rosetta spacecraft will rendezvous with periodic comet Wirtanen before releasing a lander onto its tiny nucleus.In order to ensure the success of this ambitious mission, a joint team from ESA's Space Science Department and the European Southern Observatory (ESO)has agreed to make a series of ground-based observations of the comet. The first fruits of this collaboration are a series of remarkable images of thecomet's nucleus which have been released today by ESO to coincide with theESA Rosetta press conference in London.
Published: 1 July 1999
At a press event to be held on Thursday 1 July at the Royal Society in London(6 Carlton House Terrace), the European Space Agency's Director of Science, Professor Roger Bonnet, will present the next mission in ESA's ambitious comet exploration programme and unveil a quarter-sized high-fidelity model of the Rosetta orbiter and lander.
Published: 18 June 1999
No spacecraft has yet landed on the surface of a comet. But this will change in 2012 when the Rosetta lander will set down on the nucleus of Comet Wirtanen and return a flood of unique data about this primitive chunk of dirty ice.In order to ensure the success of such an ambitious project, a full-size structural-thermal model of the spacecraft has been undergoing anexhaustive series of tests at the Ottobrunn (Munich) facilities of IABG.
Published: 10 May 1999
A full size model of the Rosetta lander was presented to the public for the first time today. The unveiling ceremony took place at the Institute for Space Simulation in Cologne-Porz, a facility operated by the German Aerospace Research Centre (Deutschen Zentrums für Luft und Raumfahrt or DLR).
Published: 10 March 1999
Congratulations from the Rosetta team on the successful launch of Stardust!What do the Giotto, Vega, Stardust, Contour and Rosetta comet missionsall have in common? The answer is they all carry European-builtinstruments designed to study what comet dust is made of.
Published: 7 February 1999
Some 100 scientists and engineers came together during the latest meetingof the RosettaScience Working Team (SWT) at the European Space Research and TechnologyCentre(ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands, on 14 and 15 January. Those present included representatives from theUnited States as well as all ESA member states.
Published: 19 January 1999
The post-Christmas winner of our Rosetta children's picture competitionis Elodie Berthet, aged seven, from Onex, Switzerland. Ourpre-Christmas winner was Lisa Mackay, aged 9, from The Netherlands.
Published: 14 January 1999
The pre-Christmas winner of our Rosetta drawing competition is Lisa MacKay, aged 9, from the British School in the Netherlands.We are so enjoying seeing all your drawings that we have extended the deadline until 6 January. So kids - keep those pictures coming in.
Published: 17 December 1998
The Rosetta comet rendezvous mission has passed another significantmilestone. According to ESA's usual practice for major projects, a Rosetta Mission System Design Review took place at ESTEC in The Netherlands on 10 December 1998. Duringthe review an independent team of engineers and ESA officials closelyscrutinised all theelements of the mission, including the ground stations, the spacecraft, thepayload ofscientific instruments and the launcher.
Published: 13 December 1998
Deadline extended to 6 January 1999!The Rosetta web site has a new children's Christmas drawing competition. The winning pictures will be published on the web. Visit our new kids' competition page for more information.
Published: 8 December 1998
ESA's Industrial Policy Committee (IPC), meeting in Paris on 26 November, has given the final go-ahead for placing the Rosetta development contract with Dornier Satellitensysteme, Germany.
Published: 29 November 1998
The last of the Rosetta Experiment Intermediate Design Reviews (EIDR) was successfully completed on 28 October, at ESTEC.
Published: 28 October 1998
Returning a stream of data while flying alongside a comet almost 900million km from Earth requires a particularly sensitive and reliablecommunications network. The European Space Agency has recently signed acontract which should ensure that the vital information returned by theRosetta spacecraft during its long journey through the Solar System willsafely reach the eagerly waiting scientists.
Published: 22 September 1998
The European Southern Observatory's new giant telescope, has provided excellent new images of Rosetta's target comet, Comet Wirtanen.
Published: 21 September 1998
On its way to meet with comet 46 P/Wirtanen, Rosetta will fly by and study two asteroids. The target asteroids have changed to Otawara and Siwa.
Published: 8 September 1998
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