Copernical Team
How Europe’s biggest rocket came to be: Ariane 6 montage
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The first half of 2024 saw hundreds of people across Europe building, cajoling, shipping, lowering, integrating, securing and protecting the precious pieces and parts that came together to create Ariane 6 – Europe’s new heavy-lift rocket.
Huge engines, boosters and outer shells met tiny screws, electrical boards and masses of supercooled fuel. All this came together at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, for the spectacular first launch of Ariane 6 on 9 July 2024, restoring Europe’s access to space.
Get a glimpse at the teamwork, skill and care that went into this moment over many months, in this montage
From Concordia to the Moon
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Concordia is a research station in Antarctica that places you farther away from humankind than even the International Space Station. Every year, ESA sponsors a medical doctor to spend a year, or "winterover," at Concordia station. This year, our medical doctor is Jessica Kehala Studer, who is seen in this picture gazing at the Moon and the vast expanse of Antarctica. Around May, the Sun dips below the horizon for the last time, and the crew experiences four months of total darkness, with temperatures dropping to –80°C in winter.
The station serves as an analogue for space, mirroring the
Make the most of ESA’s Industry Space Days 2024
Participants of ESA’s Industry Space Days (ISD 2024) share insights and tips on how to make the most of this space technology business event on 18–19 September at ESA-ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
Juice’s lunar-Earth flyby: all you need to know LINK
Juice’s lunar-Earth flyby: all you need to know
ICON mission ends with critical breakthroughs on Earth, space weather
Nearly five years after it launched, NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer - or ICON - mission has officially come to an end, the space agency announced Wednesday.
NASA's ICON mission gathered valuable data as it orbited the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere, about 55 miles to 360 miles into space in the ionosphere, and provided critical breakthroughs on how space weather affects Hubble Observes Possible Galactic Collision
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, situated 14.5 million light-years away in the Canes Venatici constellation. This galaxy, resembling an oversized star cluster rather than a typical galaxy, is a key focus of current research due to its complex structure.
Hubble's detailed image highlights numerous stars and associated globular Rocket Lab Sets Date for 51st Electron Mission with Synspective Satellites
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has announced the launch window for its 51st Electron mission, set to deploy the latest satellite for long-term customer Synspective.
The "Owl for One, One for Owl" mission will launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, during a 14-day window starting on July 31st NZST / July 30th UTC. This mission will place a single StriX satellite PariSat returns first images of Earth
Earth's beauty has been captured by some of the youngest space operators. The PariSat experiment, part of Ariane 6's inaugural flight, was developed by young enthusiasts aged 15 to 25 from the GAREF AEROSPATIAL amateur space club.
The experiment aimed to test the Stefan-Boltzmann law of thermal radiation by identifying the most effective materials for dissipating heat in space.
Eight YPSat captures Ariane 6 inaugural launch
If there had been an astronaut aboard the historic first launch of Europe's Ariane 6, this is what they would have seen: images and videos from key phases of the flight, captured by the YPSat payload, a project led by ESA Young Professionals during their own time.
Attached to the launcher's upper stage, YPSat served as a crucial observer throughout the test flight. The payload transmitted