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    European Space Agency (ESA): News

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    Post  Admin Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:20 am

    The European Commission said the reduction of the order for satellite program Galileo - the European counterpart GPS
     
    Today the European Commission said the reduction of the order for Galileo satellite program to 22 pieces. Dissemination of information, reducing the order made to preserve the possibility of modifying the design of satellites in the early stages of the life of the navigation system. This solution also allows the commission to save money and not go beyond the boundaries of the approved budget.

    Initially, the Commission requested the contractors program Galileo, the European counterpart GPS, - a consortium led by Astrium Satellites and OHB System - to build a 28 out of 30 satellites, but now the order fell to a maximum of 22 pieces. Commission asked both manufacturers to divide the total cost to the value of 8 and 16 satellites, in case the Commission decides to divide the work between the two consortia.

    The latest proposals would be made not later than mid-November 2009, and the schedule established by the end of December 2009.

    The European Commission has at its disposal 840 million Euro for the implementation of the contract for the construction of 28-30 satellite navigation system Galileo.

    Officials said that contractors fall within the terms of the contract and budget.

    http://www.tsenki.com/NewsDoSeleFed.asp?NEWSID=7848
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    European Space Agency (ESA): News Empty France's Military Satellites

    Post  Admin Thu Dec 02, 2010 8:38 pm

    France Orders Spy Satellites From EADS Astrium

    By PIERRE TRAN
    Published: 2 Dec 2010 11:03

    PARIS - France has ordered two optical satellites in a 795 million euro ($1.05 billion) contract with EADS Astrium, as part of the European Musis space surveillance system, the Ministry of Defense said in a Dec. 2 statement.

    "These two satellites will constitute the space optical component of the future program for space imagery for defense and security, Musis [Multinational Space-based System], due to be realized with Germany, Belgium, Spain, Greece and Italy," the statement said.

    Astrium is the prime contractor for the new satellites, with Thales Alenia Space building the optical instruments. The first satellite is due to be placed in orbit in December 2016.

    Compared with the Helios 2 military spy satellites they are replacing, the new satellites' sensors are designed to identify smaller targets, deliver to decision-makers a greater number of pictures from crisis zones, and do it more quickly, the statement said.

    Under the contract, there is an option for a third satellite. An order for the third satellite will depend on a cooperation agreement with other European countries that will allow for shared financing of the optical component, the statement said.

    Musis is intended as the next-generation successor to the French Helios 2 and dual civil-military Pléiades optical satellites, and the radar-based German Sar-Lupe and Italian Cosmo-SkyMed systems.

    The Direction Générale de l'Armement procurement office has assigned the CNES French space agency to act as program manager for the Musis optical satellites.

    The national contributions to the Musis program comprise, besides the two French optical satellites: a Spanish dual civil-military optical satellite dubbed Ingenio; a German very high resolution radar named Sarah; and Italy's second generation Cosmo-SkyMed, a dual civil-military sensor with high and very high resolution radar.

    http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=5148913&c=EUR&s=AIR
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    Post  Mike E Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:20 pm

    http://www.gizmag.com/rosetta-philae-landing-date-selected-esa/34028/ - This will be interesting...
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    Post  Mike E Wed Oct 01, 2014 7:33 am

    European Spacecraft to Make Historic Comet Landing on Nov. 12


    One of the boldest and most dramatic maneuvers in the history of spaceflight is just six weeks away.
    On Nov. 12, the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe will try to drop a robotic lander onto the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which Rosetta has been orbiting since early August. No spacecraft has ever attempted a soft landing on a comet before.
    The current plan calls for the lander, named Philae, to come down at a location on Comet 67P that the mission team has dubbed Site J. [Incredible Comet Photos by the Rosetta Mission]
    "Site J was chosen unanimously over four other candidate sites as the primary landing site because the majority of terrain within a square kilometer [0.4 square miles] area has slopes of less than 30 degrees relative to the local vertical and because there are relatively few large boulders," European Space Agency (ESA) officials said in a statement.
    "The area also receives sufficient daily illumination to recharge Philae and continue surface science operations beyond the initial 64-hour battery-powered phase," they added.
    If all goes according to plan, Rosetta will deploy Philae at 4:35 a.m. EDT (0835 GMT) on Nov. 12, at a distance of 14 miles (22.5 km) from the comet. Philae will spiral down slowly toward 67P, eventually securing itself to the surface with harpoons at Site J around 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT) that same day.
    Confirmation of the historic maneuver's success or failure will come 28 minutes and 20 seconds later — the amount of time it takes for signals to travel from Rosetta to its controllers here on the ground.
    It's also possible that Philae could touch down at a backup location called Site C, ESA officials said. Final confirmation of the landing plan will come on Oct. 14, after a formal review of data gathered by the Rosetta mothership. ESA will also launch a public competition to name Philae's landing site on that date.
    The $1.7 billion (1.3 billion euros) Rosetta mission blasted off in March 2004 and finally arrived in orbit around Comet 67P on Aug. 6 of this year. The Rosetta orbiter is studying the 2.5-mile-wide (4 km) comet with 11 different science instruments, and Philae will contribute by photographing 67P's surface and collecting and analyzing samples.
    Comet 67P, which takes 6.5 years to complete one lap around the sun, is now getting closer and closer to our star. Rosetta and Philae will continue to observe the comet and study how it changes as it warms up on its trek through the inner solar system.
    The goal is to better understand the composition and behavior of comets, which are remnants from the solar system's formation 4.6 billion years ago, ESA officials have said. Rosetta is expected to continue gathering data through December 2015.
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    Post  Mike E Fri Oct 03, 2014 7:07 am

    ESA narrows down the ExoMars landing site choices

    By October 2014, an ESA-appointed panel reduced a number of potential landing sites on the Red Planet from eight to four: Mawrth Vallis, Oxia Planum, Hypanis Vallis and Aram Dorsum. All four are close to the equator.
    As quoted on the ESA web site: "The present-day surface of Mars is a hostile place for living organisms, but primitive life may have gained a foothold when the climate was warmer and wetter, between 3.5 billion and 4 billion years ago," says Jorge Vago, ESA's ExoMars project scientist. "Therefore, our landing site should be in an area with ancient rocks where liquid water was once abundant. Our initial assessment clearly identified four landing sites that are best suited to the mission's scientific goals."
    The area around Mawrth Vallis and nearby Oxia Planum contains one of the largest exposures of rocks on Mars that are older than 3.8 billion years and clay-rich, indicating that water once played a role here. Mawrth Vallis lies on the boundary between the highlands and lowlands and is one of the oldest outflow channels on Mars.
    The exposed rocks at both Mawrth Vallis and Oxia Planum have varied compositions, indicating a variety of deposition and wetting environments. In addition, the material of interest has been exposed by erosion only within the last few hundred million years, meaning the rocks are still well preserved against damage from the planet's harsh radiation and oxidation environment.
    By contrast, Hypanis Vallis lies on an exhumed fluvial fan, thought to be the remnant of an ancient river delta at the end of a major valley network. Distinct layers of fine-grained sedimentary rocks provide access to material deposited about 3.45 billion years ago. Finally, the Aram Dorsum site receives its name from the eponymous channel, curving from northeast to west across the location. The sedimentary rocks around the channel are thought to be alluvial sediments deposited much like those around Earth's River Nile. This region experienced both sustained water activity followed by burial, providing protection from radiation and oxidation for most of Mars' geological history, also making this a site with strong potential for finding preserved biosignatures.
    "While all four sites are clearly interesting scientifically, they must also allow for the operational and engineering requirements for safe landing and roving on the surface," adds Jorge. "Technical constraints are satisfied to different degrees in each of these locations and, although our preliminary evaluation indicates that Oxia Planum has fewer problems compared to the other sites, verification is still on going."
    The next stage of analysis will include simulations to predict the probability of landing success based on the entry profile, atmospheric and terrain properties at each of the candidate sites. The aim is to complete the certification of at least one site by the second half of 2016, with a final decision on the landing site for the ExoMars 2018 rover to be taken sometime in 2017, ESA said.
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    Post  Mike E Fri Oct 03, 2014 7:42 am

    India Seeking Outside Help on High-throughput Satellite

    TORONTO — The Indian government wants a high-throughput satellite generating at least 100 gigabits-per-second in orbit within five years and is seeking international partners in its development, an Indian Space Research Organisation official said.
    If pursued, the project would mark a rare opportunity for foreign suppliers to crack India’s mainly closed satellite telecommunications market, which in any case has shown signs of opening in the past year.
    “We are looking for international cooperation in this area,” ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said in an address to the 65th International Astronautical Congress here. 
    ISRO, with help from domestic companies, builds its own satellites and operates them for is own account, and then acts as India’s telecommunications regulator with respect to pricing and market access by non-Indian satellite fleet operators.
    For India, the question will be whether to adopt a satellite broadband model such as in the United States, where Hughes Network Systems and ViaSat Inc. own their own satellites, build consumer broadband terminals and sell the service; or to purchase competing technologies.
    Germantown, Maryland-based Hughes, owned by EchoStar Corp. fo Englewood, Colorado, has long targeted India as a market ripe for consumer broadband. Hughes has recently purchased Ka-band capacity on a satellite being built for fleet operator Eutelsat of Paris for a consumer broadband project in Brazil.
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    Post  Mike E Mon Oct 06, 2014 9:23 pm

    http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/42101virgin-galactic-poised-to-resume-spaceshiptwo-powered-flights

    http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/42090europe%E2%80%99s-first-copernicus-satellite-begins-operations
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    Post  George1 Mon Feb 16, 2015 3:39 am

    European last ATV-type cargo supply spacecraft sunk in Pacific

    MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. Fragments of the European final cargo supply spaceship of the ATV series, Georges Lemaitre, that undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday have sunk in the Pacific, a spokesman for the European Space Agency told TASS on Sunday.

    "The spaceship’s elements sunk in an unnavigable section of the Pacific," the spokesman said, adding that the ship had been docked to the ISS since August 2014.

    The European unmanned cargo resupply spacecraft Georges Lemaitre is the final cargo supply spaceship of the ATV /Automated Transfer Vehicle/ series. The first one, the Jules Verne, was launched to the ISS in 2008. Along with Russia’s Progress spacecraft, ATV-type spaceships were capable of docking to the ISS in an automated mode. Other spacecraft are docked with the help of automated manipulator.

    The European Space Agency has spent about 2.5 billion euro to fiancй the ATV spacecraft project, which gave jobs to 3,000 people and about 300 companies and research institutions, including Russian. Each spaceship cost some 450 million euro.

    The European Space Agency however plans to use ATV project technologies in other projects. Thus, they will be used at NASA’s manned Orion spaceship due to be blasted off in 2017. Europeans will supply engine units, electric power, water and air supply systems.

    It is not ruled out that the European Space Agency will use ATV technologies to build an automated space garbage collector.

    From now on, Russian-made Progress cargo supply spacecraft and spaceships of U.S. private companies - SpaceX’s Dragon and Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus - will be used to deliver cargos to the International Space Station.

    The next launch of a Progress ship to the International Space Station is scheduled for February 17 from the Baikonur space centre.
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    Post  George1 Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:14 pm

    Preparation of Russia’s Soyuz rocket launch with Galileo satellites starts at Kourou

    PARIS, 6 March. /TASS/. Preparations for the next launch of Russia’s Soyuz carrier rocket have begun in French Guiana. Arianespace, responsible for Kourou spaceport launches, told TASS on Thursday that the company has completed installation of the four strap-on boosters of the rocket’s first stage. They were attached to the central unit A, which is the second stage.

    "The next step will be the mating of Soyuz’ Block I third stage to the launcher’s core, completing the basic build-up, and readying the vehicle for its rollout to the launch pad - where the payload will be mated," Arianespace said.

    The launch of the Soyuz rocket from Kourou is scheduled for March 27.

    Arianespace’s March 27 flight will be the 11th Soyuz flight from French Guiana since the launcher’s introduction at the Spaceport in October 2011.

    The Russian carrier rocket will take into orbit two satellites of the European navigation system Galileo - an analogue of Russia’s GLONASS global navigation satellite system and the American GPS system. The Galileo project was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with the EU support. The work on the Galileo system was launched in 2000. In 2005 and 2008, two experimental satellites were launched. In 2011, Russia’s Soyuz-STB rocket during its first blastoff from the French Guiana spaceport orbited two first permanent satellites that laid the foundation for the future navigation system.

    For the upcoming Soyuz mission, Arianespace will loft the third and fourth Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites to further expand the constellation for Europe’s space-based navigation system. Flight VS11’s two satellites were built by OHB System, with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. supplying their navigation payloads, Arianespace said.

    Galileo’s complete operational network and its ground infrastructure will be deployed during the program’s Full Operational Capability phase, which is managed and funded by the European Commission. The European Space Agency has been delegated as the design and procurement agent on the Commission’s behalf.
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    Post  George1 Fri Mar 13, 2015 7:42 pm

    European Space Agency Tries to Make Contact With Sleeping Comet Probe

    European Space Agency (ESA): News 1014755456

    The Rosetta orbiter is attempting to get an answer from the Philae probe, which has been dormant since crash landing on a comet in November.

    Astronomers at the European Space Agency are attempting to wake up the Philae space probe, which has been dormant since making an awkward landing in a shady area on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12 last year that caused its solar-powered batteries to fail.

    According to Lander Project Manager Stephan Ulamec from the German Aerospace Center, "Philae currently receives about twice as much solar energy as it did in November last year," as the Comet's distance from the Sun has decreased. "It will probably still be too cold for the lander to wake up, but it is worth trying. The prospects will improve with each passing day."

    The 100 kilogram Philae lander reached Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after being carried by the Rosetta orbiter on a 6.5 billion kilometer journey which took ten years, and the comet, Rosetta and Philae are currently around 320 million kilometers from the Sun. On August 13, the comet is expected to reach its perihelion, the point when it is closest to the sun – some 186 million km away.

    The ESA announced that the radio receiver on Rosetta which communicates with Philea was switched on on Thursday, and that until March 20 the orbiter will be transmitting to the lander and listening for a response. In order to be able to respond, the lander needs to generate at least 5.5 watts using its solar panels, and have an interior temperature of at least –45ºC.

    "Philae is designed so that, since November 2014, it has been using all the available solar energy to heat up," explained Koen Geurts from the Lander Control Center. The lander is most likely to be able to make contact during the the 11 flybys where the Rosetta's path puts it in a favorable position during Philae's daytime, when it is being supplied with power by its solar panels.

    The Rosetta mission is analyzing Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its orbit of the sun in a bid to find out more about comets, the oldest and most primitive materials in the Solar System which date back to its origin 4.57 billion years ago. Scientists hope that by analyzing the bodies, more can become known about the origins and evolution of the Solar System itself.

    Read more: http://sputniknews.com/science/20150313/1019458167.html#ixzz3UIC2uscv
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    Post  George1 Wed Mar 18, 2015 8:01 am

    Future ESA Launchers
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    European Space Agency (ESA): News Empty SIXTH GALILEO SATELLITE REACHES ORBIT

    Post  George1 Wed Mar 18, 2015 8:03 am

    SIXTH GALILEO SATELLITE REACHES ORBIT

    The sixth Galileo satellite of Europe’s navigation system has now entered its corrected target orbit, which will allow detailed testing to assess the performance of its navigation payload.

    Launched with the fifth Galileo last August, its initial elongated orbit saw it travelling as high as 25 900 km above Earth and down to a low point of 13 713 km – confusing the Earth sensor used to point its navigation antennas at the ground.

    A recovery plan was devised between ESA’s Galileo team, flight dynamics specialists at ESA’s ESOC operations centre and France’s CNES space agency, as well as satellite operator SpaceOpal and manufacturer OHB.

    This involved gradually raising the lowest point of the satellites’ orbits more than 3500 km while also making them more circular.

    The fifth Galileo entered its corrected orbit at the end of November 2014. Both its navigation and search and rescue payloads were switched on the following month to begin testing.

    Now the sixth satellite has reached the same orbit, too.

    This latest salvage operation began in mid-January and concluded six weeks later, with some 14 manoeuvres performed in total.

    Its corrected position is effectively a mirror image of the fifth satellite’s, placing the pair on opposite sides of the planet.

    The exposure of the two to the harmful Van Allen Belt radiation has been greatly reduced, helping to ensure future reliability.

    Significantly, the corrected orbit means they will overfly the same location on the ground every 20 days. This compares with a standard Galileo repeat pattern of every 10 days, helping to synchronise their ground tracks with the rest of the constellation.

    The test results from Galileo 5 proved positive, with the same test campaign for the sixth satellite due to begin shortly, overseen by ESA’s Redu centre in Belgium. A 20 m-diameter antenna will study the strength and shape of the navigation signals at high resolution.

    “I am very proud of what our teams at ESA and industry have achieved,” says Marco Falcone, head of Galileo system office. “Our intention was to recover this mission from the very early days after the wrong orbit injection. This is what we are made for at ESA.”

    The decision whether to use the two satellites for navigation and search-and-rescue purposes will be ultimately taken by the European Commission, as the system owner, based on the in-orbit test results and the system’s ability to provide navigation data from the improved orbits.

    The next pair of satellites is due for launch on 27 March.
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    Post  George1 Tue Jul 21, 2015 12:25 am

    Rosetta Spacecraft Loses Contact With Philae Lander - Aerospace Center

    The Philae research module, currently on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, might have changed its position and so lost communication with the Rosetta spacecraft, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) said Monday.

    MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The research module landed on the comet in November 2014 to collect and transfer data on its composition. After landing on the comet the Philae module went into "silent mode," due to low batteries, before reawakening in June.

    The Lander Control Center at the DLR has been trying to reestablish communication with Philae since July 9, when the lander returned to "silent mode" after a successful data transmission session.

    "We sent a command to turn on the Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor (ROMAP), but have not seen a response," DLR's Philae project leader Stephan Ulamec said.

    He added that the communication between the lander and the space probe might be hampered if Philae's antennas are concealed from Rosetta, or their orientation relative to the control module has changed due to outgassing during the comet's approach to the sun.

    According to the DLR, Philae is now receiving maximum solar energy for its batteries, disallowing a power problem as a possible reason for communication to suddenly cease.

    DLR engineers believe a problem might have occurred due to radio receiver damage or a malfunction of a transmitter unit on the lander.

    Ulamec said his team will send an instruction to Philae for "blind commanding" to switch the probe to operate with only one transmitter and receiver.

    At the end of the week Rosetta will change its orbit due to the increasing activity in the comet's subsoil as it approaches the sun and warms up. This new stage of the mission will reduce the chances of reestablishing contact with the Philae module.

    Read more: http://sputniknews.com/science/20150721/1024853569.html#ixzz3gTNe3amf
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    Post  George1 Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:57 pm

    ESA’s Control Center establishes contact with ExoMars-2016 spacecraft

    More:
    http://tass.ru/en/science/862344
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    Post  George1 Fri Apr 15, 2016 5:27 pm

    ExoMars spacecraft sends back first images en route to Red Planet

    More:
    http://tass.ru/en/science/869858
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    Post  George1 Sat Oct 01, 2016 3:33 pm

    Rosetta Space Probe Studying 67P Comet Starts Final Manoeuvre

    Read more: https://sputniknews.com/science/20160930/1045854356/rosetta-space-probe.html
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    Post  George1 Mon Oct 17, 2016 10:25 am

    ExoMars landing module separates from orbiter while approaching Red Planet

    The Russian-European mission ExoMars-2016 was launched on March 14

    MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. The Russian-European interplanetary station ExoMars has separated into the Schiaparelli landing demonstrator module and the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) as it approached the Red Planet, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Sunday.

    The Russian-European mission ExoMars-2016 was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan by a Proton-M carrier rocket on March 14.

    The mission comprises the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli landing demonstrator module, which is to land on Mars on October 19. TGO is expected to reach the orbit of Mars on the same day but before that TGO is to make an orbit-raising manoeuver on October 17. The orbiter will slow down in the Mars atmosphere for about a year. It will study, in particular, small gas mixtures of the atmosphere and water ice on Martian soil.

    Schiaparelli will operate on the Red Planet for several days until the energy capacity of its batteries is depleted.

    The ExoMars 2nd stage envisages sending a Russian landing platform and a European rover to the Red Planet in 2020. The mission’s 2nd stage will focus on drilling and analyzing Martian soil: scientists believe that the traces of organic life could have been preserved at a depth of several meters.


    More:
    http://tass.com/science/906791
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    Post  George1 Thu Oct 20, 2016 12:16 am

    WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The signal from a robotic probe of Mars went dark shortly before the vessel landed on the planet’s surface, with scientists scurrying to re-establish contact, the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a press release on Wednesday.

    Read more: https://sputniknews.com/science/201610191046516992-schiaparelli-mars-rover-contact-lost/

    It seems that lander has failed
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    Post  George1 Sun Oct 21, 2018 2:40 am

    BepiColombo mission for Mercury exploration launched from Courou

    The mission will seek "to provide the best understanding to date of the Solar System's innermost planet," the European Space Agency said

    MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. /TASS/. European heavy-lift rocket Ariane-5 has been launched successfully from the European Spaceport in Courou, French Guiana, at 01:45 UTC on Saturday. The rocket will deliver into space the spacecraft of the BepiColombo mission, a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for planet Mercury exploration. The launch was broadcast live on JAXA's official website.

    "The mission comprises two science orbiters: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The ESA-built Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) will carry the orbiters to Mercury using a combination of solar electric propulsion and gravity assist flybys. Over seven years, the mission will make one flyby of Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury," the ESA said.

    The mission will seek "to provide the best understanding to date of the Solar System's innermost planet," the ESA added. "It is the first Mercury mission to send two spacecraft to make complementary measurements of the planet's dynamic environment at the same time," the space agency said.


    More:
    http://tass.com/science/1026973
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    Post  George1 Sat Dec 25, 2021 2:37 pm

    Ariane 5 rocket payload carrying James Webb telescope successfully separates after launch

    According to the European Space Agency, the telescope will travel to its destination at the second Lagrange point for four weeks

    https://tass.com/science/1380875


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