N° 17–1994: ESA takes part in IML-2 shuttle mission : Press briefing at ESA/ESOC.

Scheduled for 8 July 1994, the IML-2 space shuttle flight (STS-65) will see a strong ESA participation. In this 14 day long mission- the second in a series of international Spacelab missions- a crew of seven (including japanese astronaut) will conduct scientific investigations in the fields of basic biological sciences and material sciences.

More than 200 scientists from 15 countries around the world take part in the IML-2 mission and ESA contributes half of the experiments on board and four major facilities, mainly in the fields of biological sciences and fluid sciences.

During the mission, ESA's European Space Operation Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, will act as a communications hub linking the NASA payload Operations Control Centre (POCC) at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, United States, to European users centres in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands from where scientists will be performing interactive remote operations with the experiments on board.

To present and illustrate the role of ESA in this miision, a press briefing will be held at ESA/ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany on 28 June 1994 with the following programme:

 

• 09:00 Registration of participants
  Possibilty of shooting film/taking pictures in the Comuunications Laboratory

• 10:00 Introduction Presentation of IML-2 mission

  - Microgravity at ESA and IML-2 mission
  - Remote operations concepts
  - The telecommunications network for telescience

• 11:00 Question & answer session, inluding participation of five users centres in Europe and NASA connected via live link
• 12:00 Buffet

Media representatives wishing to participate in the briefing are requested to fill-out and return the attached form directly to ESA/ESOCExternal Communications Office.