7 June
1999: On 7 June 1999, ESA launched its Earth observation programme, the Living Planet. The Living Planet Programme was the most comprehensive Earth observation programme ever to be launched. The ...
27 FEB. 2004
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1625: On 8 June 1625, the French-Italian scientist Giovanni Cassini was born.
He was the most notable space observer since Galileo. Heading the Paris Observatory for many years, Cassini was the first to observe seasonal changes on Mars and measure its parallax (distance from Earth), setting the scale of the Solar System for the first time. He was the first to describe the bands and spots on Jupiter, and studied the orbits of Jupiter's moons.
He discovered four moons around Saturn, but is best remembered for first seeing the division (now named after him) between the ‘A’ and ‘B’ rings around Saturn.
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6 June
2003: On 6 June 2003, an Italian-led team of European scientists and engineers tackled the challenges of testing the reliability, behaviour, and response of some of the Huygens probe's instruments ...
5 June
2003: On 5 June 2003, ESA's Mars Express, three days after launch, performed the crucial operation of releasing the Beagle-2 lander's launch clamps. These clamps were extra attachments that ensure ...
4 June
1996: On 4 June 1996, the first four of ESA's Cluster spacecraft were destroyed when the Ariane-5 rocket exploded during its maiden launch. Engineers built three new Cluster spacecraft while ...
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