31 DEC. 2003
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1995: On 1 January 1995, Finland joined the European Space Agency as a full member.
Finland has not launched any national satellites, but has participated in a large number of international space missions beginning in the late 1980s with subsystems or instruments built in Finland. There are currently a number of space projects running at the Observatory of the University of Helsinki.
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Giuseppe Piazzi
1801: On 1 January 1801, the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres, the first and largest asteroid.
The discovery of Ceres followed that of the planet Uranus, made in 1781 by Sir William Herschel. Piazzi's discovery confirmed the so-called 'Titius-Bode's law', which assumed the existence of a 'fifth planet' between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. Later the German astronomer Johann Olbers discovered other 'small planets', which the astronomical community came to call 'asteroids'.
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30 December
2000: On 30 December 2000, the ESA/NASA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission flew to within 9 721 846 kilometres of Jupiter.
28 December
1999: On 28 December 1999, European astronauts Claude Nicollier and Jean-François Clervoy and their five fellow crew members on the Space Shuttle Discovery returned to Earth.
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