N° 23–2018: Call for Media: ESA at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen
The European Space Agency (ESA) will be present at the 69th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which will take place between Monday 1 October and Friday 5 October 2018 at the Exhibition and Conference Centre in Bremen. The theme of this year’s congress is ‘Involving Everyone’.
At the world’s largest space congress ESA will inform media, the general public, policy, business and science leaders about ongoing missions and the future of ESA programmes across all space domains.
ESA’s exhibition booth in the IAC Exhibition Hall is located in a joint area with the International Space Education Board (ISEB) and the Start-up Zone powered by ESA Space Solutions. Following the motto ‘Involving Everyone’, the exhibition space offers students the opportunity to network with entrepreneurs and other actors of the international space community.
Jan Wörner, ESA Director General and Vice President for Agency, Parliamentarian and Ministerial Relations at the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), will participate in a series of media briefings. Media representatives are invited to attend the following events:
MONDAY, 1 OCTOBER:
15:15 – 16:00: Heads of Agencies Press Conference
Media representatives will get the opportunity to address questions directly to the Heads of Space Agencies.
Participants:
Jim Bridenstine, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Hiroshi Yamakawa, President, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
K. Sivan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
Sylvain Laporte, President, Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
Jan Wörner, Director General, European Space Agency (ESA)
Zhang Kejian, Administrator, China National Space Administration (CNSA)
Dmitry Rogozin, Director General, Roscosmos
Location: CCB Gallery
After the press conference the Heads of Agencies will interact with students at the ESA booth in the Exhibition Hall.
TUESDAY, 2 OCTOBER
15:00 – 16:00: ESA Press Conference with Director General Jan Wörner
ESA Director General Jan Wörner will present the status of preparation of the ESA Ministerial Council which will be held at the end of 2019 and for which a preparatory Council meeting will be organised as an Intermediary Meeting of Ministers (IMM2018) on 25 October 2018 in Madrid, Spain.
Location: CCB Gallery
16:15 – 16:40: Announcement of the opening of the ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Northern Germany
Participants:
Jan Wörner, ESA Director General
Frank Salzgeber, ESA Head of the Technology Transfer and Business Incubation Office
Walther Pelzer, Head of DLR Space Administration
Martin Günthner, Bremen Senator for Economy and Ports
Location: ESA’s exhibition booth
More information on ESA’s Business Incubation Centres: www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Business_Incubation
17:15 – 17:45: Update on the BepiColombo mission with ESA and JAXA
Media representatives are invited to follow an interaction between ESA Director General Jan Wörner and Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), on the latest news related to BepiColombo, a joint ESA/JAXA mission to Mercury.
BepiColombo is scheduled to lift off on 20 October from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. It will arrive at Mercury in 2025 and enhance our understanding of the planet itself and the formation of our Solar System.
Location: ESA’s exhibition booth
Further information on BepiColombo: http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo
WEDNESDAY, 3 OCTOBER
9:45 – 10:45: Joint Press Conference between ESA, NASA, Airbus and Lockheed Martin on the status of the European Service Module (ESM) for the Orion mission
Orion is a NASA spacecraft with a European contribution intended to orbit the Moon. Representatives of all four partners will brief media representatives on the European contribution as well as the spacecraft as a whole.
Participants:
David Parker, ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration
Oliver Juckenhöfel, Airbus Vice President On-Orbit Services & Exploration
Mark Kirasich, NASA Orion Program Manager
Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin Vice President & Orion Program Manager
Nico Dettmann, Head of ESA’s Development Department
Location: CCB Gallery
More information on Orion: https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Orion
Public Day event at IAC: "Space is Big - Space is Public"
On Wednesday 3 October is the IAC Public Day event with the theme ‘Space is Big - Space is Public’. A live call to the German astronaut Alexander Gerst on the ISS is embedded in a programme for the general public starting at 13:30 with a roundtable discussion on the topic ‘Space Safety’, moderated by ESA Director General Jan Wörner. The Public Day ends with a panel of astronauts that will report on their experiences in space and answer questions from the audience.
Details on the live call:
14:35 – 14:55: Live call with German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst aboard the International Space Station (ISS)
Alexander Gerst was launched to the ISS on 6 June 2018 for his second mission called ‘Horizons’. He is the first German and second ESA astronaut to command an ISS Expedition. He takes command on 3 October. Alexander Gerst will connect live from space to the audience at IAC and answer questions about his work and life on the International Space Station.
Participants:
ESA Director General Jan Wörner
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer
Pascale Ehrenfreund, Chair of the DLR Executive Board
Thomas Jarzombek, Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy
Location: ÖVB Arena
The event “space is big – space is public“ is organized by the European and German Space Agencies, ESA and DLR and the Association of Space Explorers ASE, together with the organizers of the IAC 2018, the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), as well as the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen.
Further information on the Public Day: https://www.iac2018.org/program/public-day
Media accreditation
Please note that media representatives need to register for IAC at www.iac2018.org/media
More on IAC
Further information on the full programme of IAC, a list of exhibitors and opening hours at https://www.iac2018.org
About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia is an Associate Member.
ESA has established formal cooperation with six Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.
ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.
Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space. ESA also has a strong applications programme developing services in Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications.
Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int
For further information and interview requests please contact:
ESA Media Relations Office
Email: media@esa.int
Tel: +33 1 53 69 72 99