Copernical Team
The MSL mission (Mars Science Laboratory)
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission with the aim to land and operate a rover named Curiosity on the surface of Mars.
The MSL was launched November 26, 2011 at 10:02 am EST and will land on Mars at Gale Craterbetween August 6 and August 20, 2012. It will attempt to perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars. The rover Curiosity will help assess Mars' habitability, that is, whether Mars is, or ever was an environment able to support microbial life. It will also analyze samples scooped up from the soil and drilled powders from rocks.
Meteosat
The Meteosat series of satellites are geostationary meteorological satellites operated by the Euopean organisation EUMETSAT.
Soyuz rocket
Soyuz is a family of expendable launch systems developed by OKB-1, and manufactured by TsSKB-Progress in Samara, Russia.
The launch services are commercialised by the company Starsem.
The Soyuz launch vehicle family has provided reliable and efficient launch services since the birth of the space program. Vehicles in this family, which have launched both the first satellite and first man into space, have been credited with more than 1000 launches. Today, this vehicle is used for manned and unmanned flights to the International Space Station and commercial launches.
SPOT
SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre, lit. "Satellite for Earth Observation") is a high-resolution, optical imaging Earth observation satellite system operating from space. It is run by Spot Image based in Toulouse, France. It was initiated by the CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales — the French space agency) in the 1970s.
ERS - European Remote Sensing satellite
The European remote sensing satellite (ERS) was the European Space Agency's first Earth-observing satellite, injected into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at a height of 782–785 km.
ERS-1 and ERS–2 were launched into the same orbit in 1991 and 1995 respectively. Their payloads included a synthetic aperture imaging radar, radar altimeter and instruments to measure ocean surface temperature and wind fields.
ERS-2 added an additional sensor for atmospheric ozone monitoring. The two satellites acquired a combined data set extending over two decades.
Landsat
The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth.
On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Landsat.
The most recent, Landsat 7, was launched on April 15, 1999. The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. The images, archived in the USA and at Landsat receiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance, education and national security.
Ariane
Ariane is a series of a European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariane.
SCOS-2000
The Satellite Control and Operation System 2000 (SCOS-2000) is the generic satellite Mission Control System (MCS) software infrastructure developed and maintained by the European Space Agency (ESA/ESOC) in collaboration with European industry
Serco Group plc
Serco is an international service company in markets as diverse as defence, transport, civil government, science, ...
Serco Group plc is a company registered in England and Wales.
ESA - ESOC (European Space Agency)
ESOC is the European Space Operations Centre, one of the centres of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Since its creation in 1967, the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, has planned missions, operated more than 60 satellites and ensured that spacecraft meet their mission objectives. The mandate of ESOC is to conduct mission operations for ESA satellites and to establish, operate and maintain the necessary ground segment infrastructure.