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Herschel ends operations as orbiting testbed17 June 2013
Herschel ends operations as orbiting testbed17 June 2013 With the exhaustion of its helium coolant, Herschel’s science mission ended on 29 April. But the stalwart satellite continued providing value to the end, serving as an orbiting testbed for control techniques that can’t normally be tested in flight.
Europe’s space hub to open its doors on 6 October17 June 2013 From the latest space ferry to the very first Alphasat, Europe has never been more active in space, with a crowded manifest of ESA launches across the rest of the year. But where are all these varied missions born? See for yourself this October, as ES...
Atom-trapping laser gratings: a technological quantum leap for space30 May 2013 New micro-fabricated grating chips developed through ESA-led research enable the laser-based cooling and capture of atoms on a more compact basis than ever before, potentially delivering laboratory-standard performance for precision environmental sens...
New software ideas get a step closer to space10 May 2013 Project managers at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) are preparing to welcome candidates from across Europe to develop the requirements for the OPS-SAT mission. Software developers responded to a public invitation to put forward ideas for t...
Against-the-clock rehearsal for Station immunology test25 April 2013 Simply getting anything into space is tough, but doing so against a strict deadline can be really stressful. Researchers in an ESA laboratory nervously checked the clock as they extracted immune cells – beginning a full dress rehearsal to prepare a ti...
ESA gives HumSat-D a hot and cold farewell before its launch18 April 2013 An important step towards readiness for launch was achieved by the HumSat-D CubeSat, developed by a students teams from the University of Vigo, Spain, when it passed its programme of thermal vacuum tests at ESA’s Space Technology and Research Ce...
