European Space Agency’s wingless experimental spacecraft successfully returns to earth.

The European Space Agency’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, as its called blasted off from its launchpad in French Guiana.

Its flight path was closely monitored at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Torino.

A variety of materials from high-tech carbon fibre to ordinary cork were tested to shield the wingless craft during re-entry after it had soared to an altitude of 413 kilometres and descended at speeds of up to 27,000 kilometres an hour, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

Euronews correspondent, Jeremy Wilkes in Italy says: “The atmosphere in the control room is now relaxed and happy. The data has come down from the IXV spacecraft, the mission was a huge success and that’s going tofeed all kinds of new types of space missions, spacecrafts in the future over the next 20 years”.

Read more: European Space Agency’s wingless experimental spacecraft successfully returns to earth. | euronews, world news

European Space Research: ESA prepares to wake comet hunting Rosetta spacecraft - by Shane McGlaun

The European Space Agency (ESA) is getting ready to wake up its comet hunting spacecraft called Rosetta. Rosetta has been in hibernation for 31 months as it prepared for its main mission. Rosetta launched in 2004 and has spent its time this far zipping around the Sun, gaining speed.

Rosetta is expected to reach its target comet in August of 2014. In November of 2014, Rosetta will put its Philae lander onto the surface of the comet. The ESA says that the internal alarm clock for the Rosetta spacecraft is set for 10:00 GMT on January 20, 2014.

Several hours after the spacecraft wakes up and warms up, it should establish contact with the Earth. 

Read more: ESA prepares to wake comet hunting Rosetta spacecraft - SlashGear

GPS Systems: Europe’s Galileo GPS Plan Limps to Crossroads - by Andrew Higgens

Ringed by snow-covered mountains on a plateau east of Rome, the Fucino Space Center stands guard over the European Union’s flagship joint project: a satellite navigation system that is years behind schedule, many times over its original budget and unlikely to start operating for at least another year.

Europe’s future commitment to the project, known as Galileo and designed to create a new, improved and European-controlled version of America’s Global Positioning System, is to be decided in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, when European leaders will try for a second time, after talks failed in November, to hash out a long-term budget for the 27-nation bloc.

With recession and austerity clouding much of the Continent, they will argue over where the ax should fall on a European Union budget for 2014 to 2020, which would total nearly $1.35 trillion as drafted. 

An over-budget satellite navigation system that is years from full completion, largely a duplicate of an American system already widely used in Europe and unlikely ever to generate much revenue would seem to be in the budget cutters’ cross hairs.

But Galileo’s backers are confident, so much so that they are asking for $8 billion beyond the more than $4 billion already spent. For Galileo promises perhaps the one thing that still seems able to overcome European leaders’ devotion to austerity: economic and technological independence from the United States.

“It is like a car going on a highway — it is very difficult to stop,” said Lucio Magliozzi, chief operating officer of Telespazio. The Italian-French company manages the Fucino control center, which is tracking the handful of Galileo navigation satellites launched by Europe so far. 

Note EU-Digest: the basic argument for Europe to have Galileo remains the same: leaving the future of space research just in the hands of America, China and Russia is not an option. 

 Read more: Europe’s Galileo GPS Plan Limps to Crossroads - NYTimes.com

European Space Research: Ariane 5 Europe's most reliable commercial payload launcher

Ariane 5 ready for lift off

Ariane 5 is the cornerstone of Europe’s independent access to space. Its reliability, availability and affordability are based on a strategy where a significant part of the exploitation costs is financed through commercial activity.

Ariane 5 is launched six to seven times a year, of which only one or two are for institutional customers.

This strategy has proved to be highly successful for more than 30 years. The successive versions of the first generation of rockets, Ariane 1 to 4, launched half of all the world’s commercial satellites.

Ariane 5 maintains this impressive record, making it one of the most reliable launchers in the world at an affordable price for Europe.

Ariane 5 was a major evolution for the Ariane family. It is more powerful and uses more advanced technologies. Three successive generic versions – Ariane 5G, Ariane 5G+ and Ariane 5GS, are now retired from service.

Read more: Ariane 5 / Launch vehicles / Launchers / Our Activities / ESA

French Guiana: ESA Ariane 5’s sixth launch of 2012

Ariane 5 launcher lifts off on 52nd successful mission

Last Saturday an Ariane 5 launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites, Eutelsat-21B and Star One-C3, into their planned transfer orbits.

Liftoff of flight VA210, the 66th Ariane 5 mission, came at 21:05 GMT (22:05 CET; 18:05 French Guiana). The target injection orbit had a perigee altitude of 250 km, an apogee altitude at injection of 35 786 km and an inclination of 2°.  The satellites were accurately injected into their transfer orbits about 28 minutes and 33 minutes after liftoff, respectively.

Eutelsat-21B will be positioned above the equator at 21.5°E. It will deliver telecommunications services, data services for corporate networks and governmental administrations, and IP access in Europe, North and West Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Star One-C3, to be positioned at 75°W or 84°W, will provide direct TV broadcast, telephone and long-distance domestic communications services for Brazil and South America.

The payload mass for this launch was 9216 kg; the satellites totalled 8250 kg, with payload adapters and dispensers making up the additional 966 kg.

Flight VA210 was Ariane 5’s 52nd successful launch in a row since December 2002.

Read more: ESA Portal - Ariane 5’s sixth launch of 2012

ESA's Mars Express mission welcomes NASA's Curiosity rover

The European mission Mars Express developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) welcomed to the Red Planet the Curiosity rover sent by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ESA’s New Norcia tracking station also picked up signals directly from the NASA mission, 248 million km away at Mars.

The signals recorded by Mars Express during entry and descent of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MLS) rover were successfully received ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. The signals received by Mars Express were immediately sent to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Mars Express picked up MSL signals about 10 minutes before it entered the atmosphere, travelling at 21,000 kilometres per hour, in a critical period for the success of the mission. Over the weeks following the arrival of Curiosity to Mars surface, Mars Express and the ESA's ESOC team will make several data relay overflights during the early stages of NASA's mission to Mars.

The European mission will ensure emergency support if requested by the NASA by relaying data from Curiosity to Earth. This represents a major step for the support provided by the European Space Agency in the development of NASA's mission to Mars, a support which is possible thanks to a close collaboration between both agencies.


Read more: Euroalert.net - ESA's Mars Express mission welcomes NASA's Curiosity rover - News about the European Union

New European weather satellite launched - MSG-3 set to ensure quality of Europe’s weather service from geostationary orbit

The latest weather satellite in Europe’s highly successful Meteosat second-generation series is on its way after lifting off on an Ariane 5 at 21:36 GMT (23:36 CEST) on Thursday, 5 July from Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.

The satellite’s sensors will ensure that Europe and Africa continue to receive up-to-date weather coverage.

Some 34 minutes into flight, the third Meteosat Second Generation satellite was released into its targeted elliptical transfer orbit. It is now being controlled from ESA’s European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany.

MSG-3 is the third in a series of four satellites introduced in 2002. These spin-stabilised satellites carry the primary Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager, or SEVIRI.

SEVIRI focuses on Europe and Africa to deliver enhanced weather coverage, in order to improve local forecasts, in particular for rapidly developing storms. It scans Earth’s surface and atmosphere every 15 minutes in 12 different wavelengths, to track cloud development and measure temperatures.
SEVIRI can pick out features as small as a kilometre across in the visible bands, and three kilometres in the infrared. In addition to its weather-watching mission and collection of climate records, MSG-3 has two secondary payloads.

The Global Earth Radiation Budget sensor will measure the amount of solar energy that is radiated back into space to determine how much energy is introduced into the climate system and to provide insights into the atmospheric circulation between the day and night sides. A Search & Rescue transponder will turn the satellite into a relay for distress signals from emergency beacons.

The MSG satellites were built in Cannes, France, by a European industrial team led by Thales Alenia Space, France. More than 50 subcontractors from 13 European countries are involved.


Read more: ESA Portal - MSG-3 set to ensure quality of Europe’s weather service from geostationary orbit

Soyuz Lands Safely in Space Research: Kazakhstan - 'Bulls-eye' landing for trio that oversaw first private spaceflight

A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man multinational crew touched down safely today on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan, bringing an end to their 193-day mission to the International Space Station. Around a dozen recovery helicopters zeroed into the vast uncultivated land mass, where NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and Dutchman Andre Kuipers landed in the Russian-made capsule.

Russian space officials quickly surrounded the craft, which performed a perfect upright textbook landing, and erected ladders to begin the process of pulling out the astronauts. Commenting on the landing, NASA TV reporter Rob Navias called it "a bullseye." Kononenko was the first to be extracted from the descent module. He looked pale and tired, but medical staff announced him healthy. Pettit, second out of the module, was heard to say: "It's good to be home." Petit and his colleagues were part of the team that handled the arrival to the space station last month of the privately owned SpaceX Dragon capsule.

Read more: Soyuz Lands Safely in Kazakhstan - 'Bulls-eye' landing for trio that oversaw first private spaceflight

European Space exploration: - Ariane 5’s second launch of 2012

Early this morning, a European heavy lift Ariane 5 launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites, JCSAT-13 and Vinasat-2, into their planned transfer orbits.

Liftoff of flight VA206, the 62nd Ariane 5 mission, came at 22:13 GMT (00:13 CEST; 19:13 French Guiana). The target injection orbit had a perigee altitude of 249.9 km, an apogee altitude at injection of 35 911 km and an inclination of 2°.

The satellites were accurately injected into their transfer orbits about 26 minutes and 36 minutes after liftoff, respectively.

Read more: ESA Portal - Ariane 5’s second launch of 2012

Outer Space: Europe’s third cargo vehicle docks with the Space Station

ESA’s ATV Edoardo Amaldi has completed the first stage of its docking with the Russian Zvezda module of the International Space Station.

The docking occurred smoothly when ATV’s docking probe was captured by Zvezda’s docking cone at 00:31 CEST ( 22:31 GMT).

The docking probe is now retracting, to be followed by the hooks between the two craft closing. The data and electrical connections will then be established.

The 20-tonne vessel, flying autonomously while being continuously monitored from the ground, docked with the 450-tonne orbital complex with a precision of 6 cm as they circled Earth at more than 28 000 km/hr. 

For more: ESA Portal - Europe’s third cargo vehicle docks with the Space Station

Europe's Shiny New Vega Rocket Blasts Off

Europe on Monday successfully launched a new lightweight rocket carrying a test payload, culminating a more than 12-year quest to master the entire range of space launchers.

Cheers, tears of relief and even a soccer-style chant greeted the maiden flight of Vega, a billion-dollar bid for a stake in the market to launch small satellites.

The 81-minute mission was a "qualification" flight carrying nine scientific satellites, aimed at proving a rocket incorporating several major innovations, engineers at the Kourou base in French Guiana said.

For more: Europe's Shiny New Vega Rocket Blasts Off : Discovery News

French Guiana: Vega set for its inaugural flight

On 13 February, the European Space Agency will perform the first qualification flight of its brand new Vega launch vehicle.

The very first Vega will lift off from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, to release nine satellites into orbit and add a new capability to Europe’s fleet of launch systems. The first mission, designated VV01, is scheduled for liftoff during a two-hour launch window during 10:00–12:00 GMT (11:00–13:00 CET; 07:00–09:00 local time)

This program was supported by seven ESA member states: Belgium, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.  Designed to provide Europe with a safe, reliable, competitive and efficient launch capacity for scientific and Earth observation payloads, Vega is compatible with payload masses ranging from 300 kg to 2500 kg, depending on the type and altitude of the orbit required by the customers.

This new capacity will complement the family of launch services already available from French Guiana: the Ariane 5 heavy-lift vehicle and the Soyuz medium-class launcher, introduced October 2011.

For more: ESA Portal - Vega set for its inaugural flight

European Space Exploration: Mysterious fireball was part of Soyuz

The mysterious fireball observed above Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France on Christmas Eve was the re-entry of the third stage of a Soyuz rocket that transported three astronauts to space, the Royal Observatory of Belgium said on Sunday.

A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying the astronauts - Oleg Kononenko of Russia, Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands and Don Pettit of the United States - to the International Space Station, lifted off on Wednesday from Kazakhstan's Baikonour space centre.

For more: Mysterious fireball was part of Soyuz | News24

ESA astronaut André Kuipers on his way to the International Space Station

After their launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 13:16 GMT (14:16 CET) today, ESA astronaut André Kuipers and crewmates Oleg Kononenko and Don Pettit are circling Earth every 90 minutes aboard the Soyuz TMA-3M spacecraft as they make their way to the International Space Station.

During the next two days, the spacecraft will circle the globe 35 times, performing three major engine burns as its orbit is adjusted for docking with the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, 23 December at 15:22 GMT (16:22 CET), according to current planning.

With their arrival, the Space Station will resume full operations – the occupancy has been reduced to three for about three months as a result of the Progress cargo vessel launch mishap in August.

For more: ESA Portal - ESA astronaut André Kuipers on his way to the International Space Station

European Space Probe Finds Ozone Layer On Venus

Like the Earth and Mars, Venus has an ozone layer, European scientists have discovered.

An ozone layer a hundred to a thousand times less dense than Earth's sits at about an altitude of 100 kilometres above the surface of Venus and is five to 10 kilometres thick, the European Space Agency reported in a news release Thursday.

Franck Montmessin, an atmospheric scientist at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, said in a statement that researchers were actually looking for other molecules in Venus's atmosphere when they noticed the strong ozone signature in some of their plots. That prompted them to go back and search for it in other scans.

For more: Ozone layer found on Venus - Technology & Science - CBC News

GPS Systems: Europe's Galileo sat-nav spacecraft ready to fly - by Jonathan Amos

The platforms passed a key technical review at the weekend, paving the way for their flight to orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket on 20 October.One satellite has already made the journey to the launch complex in French Guiana; the second will ship this week.

The European Commission is investing billions of euros in its own version of the American GPS system. It expects Galileo to bring significant returns to the 27-nation bloc's economies in the form of new businesses that can exploit precise timing and location data delivered from space.

The In-Orbit Validation (IOV) spacecraft have been built by a consortium, including Europe's two heavyweight space companies - Astrium and Thales Alenia Space.


For more: BBC News - Europe's Galileo sat-nav spacecraft ready to fly

Europe's Rosetta comet probe enters hibernation in deep space

The final command placing ESA's Rosetta comet-chaser into deep-space hibernation was sent earlier today. With virtually all systems shut down, the probe will now coast for 31 months until waking up in 2014 for arrival at its comet destination.

Today's dramatic event marks the end of the hugely successful first phase of Rosetta's ten-year cruise and the start of a long, dark hibernation during which all instruments and almost all control systems will be silent.

For more: ESA Portal - Europe's Rosetta comet probe enters hibernation in deep space

ESA: Ariane 5 Sends ATV 2 on its Way to the Space Station

Europe’s ATV-2 unmanned space freighter on Feb. 16 was successfully placed into orbit aboard a European Ariane 5 ES rocket and is expected to dock at the international space station Feb. 24 to deliver fuel and other cargo, and to reboost the station into a higher orbit.

During its nearly four-month stay, ATV-2 will also be used, as needed, to maneuver the station’s orbit higher or lower to avoid debris, saving the station’s on-board fuel for use after ATV-2 leaves.

For more: Ariane 5 Sends ATV 2 on its Way to the Space Station | SpaceNews.com

The emerging China–EU space partnership: A geotechnological balancer - by Joan Johnson-Freese and Andrew S. Erickson

Through a techno-nationalist lens, this paper will assess the growing China–European Union (EU) space partnership, and its implications for international space cooperation and competition. Techno-nationalism (jishu minzuzhuyi), the idea that technological strength is an effective determinant of national power in a harshly competitive world, informs both Chinese and US perceptions of China's space development.

Using this lens elevates all space activities—manned, unmanned, military and scientific—to the strategic level. It is our contention that because of the increasing China–EU space partnership, the USA must re-evaluate its approach to China—away from the containment approach, which has thus far predominated, toward an approach which would offer the USA the opportunity to influence and, thereby, decrease the importance of the emerging partnership.
 
For more go to Sciverse

ESA - Conference at the European Parliament on 'a new Space Policy for Europe'

Europe’s future in space and the opportunities it will offer to us all will be discussed at a conference in Brussels on 26–27 October under the aegis of the European Parliament. Members of the public are invited to attend.

This conference, organised with the participation of ESA and under the high patronage of the President of the European Parliament, Mr Jerzy Buzek, is a new opportunity for the political decision-makers, company executives and representatives of civil society to discover and debate the political and financial stakes as well as the exciting industrial and service opportunities offered by the competence on the space policy of the EU.

The Convention of ESA, an International Treaty among 18 European States that entered into force in 1975, establishes that the purpose of the Agency is to foster cooperation among European states in space, by elaborating and implementing a long-term European Space Policy.

For more: ESA Portal - Conference at the European Parliament on 'a new Space Policy for Europe'