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Odissea Mission What is Odissea?Mission factsExperiments in spaceHistory of Baikonur B.USOCMeet the crew Frank De WinneSergei ZaletinYuri LonchakovAleksandr LazutkinExpedition FiveFrequently Asked Questions Being an astronautTraining for the missionThe Odissea missionThe International Space StationThe futureOdissea Gallery Image GalleryVideo GalleryLIVE mission coverage ESA TV satellite coverage
| | | | | | | Odissea Mission
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Baikonur: from the steppes of Kazakhstan to space
| Transfer of the Andromède mission Soyuz launcher from its final assembly building to the launch pad N°1, Baikonur, 19 October 2001
Credits: ESA/CNES | |  |  | |
| | | | | On 4 October 1957, Sputnik 1 was hurled into orbit atop a modified intercontinental ballistic missile, from Launch Pad 1 at Baikonur.
Credits: S.P.Korolev RSC Energia | | | | |
| | | | | Korolev and Gagarin
Credits: S.P.Korolev RSC Energia | | | | |
| | | | | The first ISS element, the Russian Zarya module, was lifted into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan on 20 November 1998.
Credits: NASA | | | | |
| | | | | Carried by the huge, hydrogen-burning Energia rocket, Buran was to have rivalled NASA's Space Shuttle. But it made only one - unmanned - flight. The fact that the test launch and recovery went perfectly made the project's demise even more galling to the thousands of scientists and engineers who had worked on it.
Credits: S.P.Korolev RSC Energia | | | | |
| | | | | The 16 July 2000, at 14.39 CEST, a Soyouz-Fregat launch vehicle provided by the French-Russian Starsem consortium lifted off with FM 6 Salsa and FM 7 Samba, the first pair of Cluster-2 satellites.
ESA's Cluster-2 mission, consists of four identical spacecraft flying in formation between 19000 and 119000 km above the Earth.
There, they will study the planet's magnetic field and electric surroundings in three dimensions. In particular, they will be looking at the effects of the solar wind, the hot wave energy produced by the Sun, which buffets Earth's protective magnetosphere.
This wind often breaks through the magnetosphere at the poles, producing auroras.
Cluster II will examine this and many other phenomena associated with the solar wind.
Photo: ESA/Starsem
Credits: ESA/Starsem-S.Corvaja | | | | |
| | | | Last update: 21 October 2002 | |
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