"Are you alive?" The two CubeSat passengers aboard
#HeraMission
have exchanged their first signals with Earth, confirming nominal status. The shoebox-sized pair were switched on to check out all their systems in deep space
ESA's Solar Orbiter has made first contact with an ancient and mysterious world… Cornwall!
Commercial deep space antennas like
@goonhillyorg
can help us optimise data downlink and allow ESA antennas to focus on supporting our most distant missions.
Hera's first deep space manoeuvre is underway!
On 23 October,
@ESA_Hera
fired its three orbital control thrusters for ~100 minutes to line it up for next year's gravity assist at Mars. A second, smaller burn on 6 November will be used to iron out any inaccuracy from the first.
Dad-daughter team decodes 'alien' signal.
👾👾👾👾👾
It is an image of five amino acids, sent by Europe's Mars orbiter
@ESA_TGO
and intercepted by radio observatories on Earth over a year ago.
Code cracked, but what does it mean?
#asigninspace
The Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) must launch in early 2028 in order to arrive at the infamous Apophis asteroid as it passes Earth. Accepting this urgency,
@ESA
’s Member States approved the use of existing funds earlier this year to begin preparatory work
☄️ One step closer to Apophis!
We have signed a contract with OHB Italia SpA to begin preparatory work on our proposed Ramses mission to the infamous asteroid Apophis.
Ramses aims to rendezvous with the asteroid and accompany it through its close encounter with Earth in 2029.
This time last week, there was a dazzling
#aurora
display for many.
We actually had to adapt our orbit manoeuvre plan to account for the solar storm impact.
#SpaceWeather
can make things a bit soupy up there for low Earth orbit satellites, as
@esaoperations
can attest! 🕹️
But
There goes planet Earth… This short animated gif of our homeworld combines 45 images returned by
#HeraMission
’s Asteroid Framing Camera (acquired for instrument testing) to show approximately an hour and a half of our planet’s rotation, put together manually by AFC Principal
Today the
#ZeroDebrisCharter
goes intercontinental: 🇳🇿 New Zealand 🇲🇽Mexico + 22 other entities and organisations have signed on at
#IAC2024
, bringing the total to over 100 signatories.
What is significant about today's signatures, is that they are representative of countries
🛰️ We have signed a contract with
@D_Orbit
to develop our RISE mission at
@IAC2024
.
Set for launch in early 2028, with a lifetime of 8 years, RISE will push the boundaries of in-orbit servicing.
Find out more ➡️
#IAC2024
🌎 Farewell, Earth! 👋
Last week, after we successfully launched our Hera mission, its instruments were switched on for the first time and the asteroid deck was pointed back towards our planet.
This allowed Hera to capture the first images of Earth and the Moon from a distance
Didymos, here we come!!
@ESA_Hera
's name has been added to the historic wall inside ESA's Main Control Room following the successful completion of the
#HeraMission
's 'Launch and Early Orbit Phase'.
The
@CopernicusEU
#Sentinel1
C satellite is now out of the shipping container that kept it safe while travelling to the launch site in French Guiana.
The satellite is set to liftoff on 3 December🚀
📸Credits: ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE/Optique vidéo du CSG–S. Martin