Latest European Space Agency Stories
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express has offered up a high-resolution photo of a river-like structure on Mars. The spacecraft used its high-resolution stereo camera last year to snap an image of Reull Vallis on the Red Planet. Reull Vallis is a river-like structure believed to have formed when running water flowed in the distant martian past. The ancient river bed cuts a steep-sided channel through the Promethei Terra...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency (ESA) signed an agreement with NASA this week to contribute to the Orion spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch in 2017. Orion's ultimate mission will be to carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. This will be achieved using a module based on Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) technology. Since 2008, ATVs have been resupplying the International Space Station (ISS). ATV Albert Einstein,...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Another milestone was recently met by the engineering team working on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope when they completed performance testing on the observatory's aft-optics system (AOS). Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. – the principal subcontractor to Northrop Grumman for the optical technology and lightweight mirror system – conducted the testing at their facilities in Boulder, Colo. "Completing Aft Optics System...
GREENBELT, Md., Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Engineers working on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope met another milestone recently with they completed performance testing on the observatory's aft-optics subsystem at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp's facilities in Boulder, Colo. Ball is the principal subcontractor to Northrop Grumman for the optical technology and lightweight mirror system. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "Completing...
BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has completed all performance testing for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope aft-optics subsystem (AOS) under contract to the Northrop Grumman Corporation. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130116/LA43566) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130108/LA39163LOGO) Since May of 2012, the AOS has undergone a series of tests including thermal and vibration, followed by cryogenic testing...
ESA [ WATCH THE VIDEO "Lessons From Mars" ] When humans eventually travel to the Red Planet, the voyage will be long and difficult. The simulated Mars500 mission showed that every detail must be planned, including diet and sleep. The findings will also benefit those of us who stay behind. Mars500 locked six ‘marsonauts’ in a simulated spaceship near Moscow, Russia for 520 days, the time it would take to fly to Mars and back plus 30 days spent exploring its surface. During their...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online One mission aims to take a Bruce Willis approach in the movie Armageddon, by deflecting any future asteroids that might be headed towards Earth. The European Space Agency is looking for research ideas to help guide the development of an asteroid deflection mission study. ESA is asking for concepts based on both ground- and space-based investigations that could improve the understanding of the physics of very high-speed collisions...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) has been busy outlining its space plans for the next several years. Included is a mission to the moon in 2015 and a replacement of its Soyuz rocket by 2020. The 2015 moon mission would see a launch from a new facility (Vostochny Cosmodrome) in the country’s Far East, according to Vladimir Popovkin, head of Roscosmos. Popovkin told Russian news officials Tuesday that the rocket booster for the...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online European students were able to command mini-robots aboard the International Space Station (ISS) remotely, helping to win a competition. A competition gave over 130 high-school students across Europe the opportunity to operate droids in space by coding software. Teams from Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal were able to utilize their computer codes to work in the space station, from the European Space Agency's ESTEC space research...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-V microsatellite is going through some testing to ensure it is fully ready to start charting global vegetation every two days. The microsatellite will be launched in April, after which it will be flying a miniaturized version of the Vegetation sensor on France's full-sized Spot-5 satellite. Proba-V is being tested at a specialized Interspace facility in Toulouse, France, undergoing rigorous...
Latest European Space Agency Reference Libraries
Léopold Eyharts is a Brigadier General in the French Air Force and an ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut. Eyharts was born April 28, 1957, in Biarritz, France. After completing his basic academics, he joined the French Air Force Academy of Salon-de-Provence in 1977 to study aeronautical engineering. Eyharts graduated in 1979 as an engineer. By 1980 he became a fighter pilot and was sent to the Istres Air Force Base in France. Initially he was assigned to an operational jaguar squadron...
Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 28, 1983 at 11:00 AM (EST) and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on December 8, 1983 at 3:47 AM (PST). The shuttle orbited 167 times at an inclination of 57 degrees and travelled 4.3 million miles. The mission lasted 10 days, 7 hours, 47 minutes, and 24 seconds. This mission was the first time 6 people were carried into space on one shuttle, and it carried the first Spacelab mission and the first European crew member, Ulf Merbold of...
Frank De Winne is a Belgian Air Component officer and an ESA astronaut. He was born Frank Viscount De Winne on April 25, 1961 in Ledeberg, Belgium. He is married to Lena Clarke and has three children from a previous marriage. He enjoys football, concerts, and gastronomy. In 1979, he graduated from the Royal School of Cadets, and in 1984, he graduated from the Royal Military Academy with a Master of Science degree in Engineering. In 1991, after graduating from the Belgian Air Component at...
Jean-Francois Clervoy is a French engineer and test pilot, a CNES and ESA astronaut, and a veteran of three NASA Space Shuttle missions. He was born Jean-Francois André Clervoy on November 19, 1958 in France. He has a twin brother, Patrick, and is married to the former Laurence Boulanger. The couple has two children, and the family enjoys racquet sports, skill games, skiing, and flying kites. Clervoy graduated from high school in Saint-Cyr Lycee and then earned his Bachelor's degree from...
Chister Fuglesang is a Swedish physicist and an ESA astronaut. He was born Arne Christer Fuglesang on March 18, 1957 in Stockholm, Sweden. His mother was Swedish, but his father was Norwegian, having become a Swedish citizen just before Fuglesang's birth. Fuglesang graduated college, and went on to receive a Master of Science degree in engineering physics from the Royal Institute of Technology in 1981. While at the Royal Institute, he met Elisabeth, whom he married in 1983. He then earned a...
![Long Day\](/media/gallery/cassinihuygens-mission/thumbs/thumbs_pia14659.jpg "Long Day\")
