ESA Helps Develop ‘Space Mail’ Technology

The European Space Agency says a student experiment designed to deliver a parcel to Earth from space without using a rocket is nearing completion.

The experiment — called YES2, for Young Engineers Satellite — was built and tested at ESA’s research and technology center, in the Netherlands. It was transported Thursday to Russia, with launch and operations scheduled for September.

The Paris-headquartered ESA said nearly 500 European students worked on the experiment that will demonstrate several new technologies. For the first time in history a nearly 20-mile-long tether will be deployed in space. And it will be the first time a parcel will be shot back to Earth from a tether.

At an altitude of about 185 miles, a 20-mile-long tether will be deployed with the re-entry capsule — the parcel — at the end of the tether. The capsule will be released from the swinging tether, sending it toward its destination in Russia.

If YES2 is successful, ESA said it would be the first proof that space mail can be sent to Earth from the International Space Station using a relatively simple and cheap mechanism.