AFP – Japan’s first lunar satellite on Thursday ended its scientific mission which started in September 2007 and was manoeuvred to crash onto the moon, the nation’s space agency said.
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Following the enthusiastic response to earlier competitions to name European astronaut missions, ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight is once again giving European citizens the opportunity to be part of a space mission by suggesting a name for ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang’s mission to the International Space Station.
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Beginning today, ESA’s Planck satellite will carry out a critical mid-course manoeuvre that will place the satellite on its final trajectory for arrival at L2, the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, early in July.
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A pilot plant inaugurated yesterday in Barcelona, Spain, is testing regenerative life support system technologies that could one day recycle waste products and supply essential food, water and oxygen to humans living on the surface of the Moon or Mars.
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As part of the sixth European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC), the ESA Technology Transfer Programme is awarding a special prize of €10,000 to the applicant with the best innovative business plan.
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AP – The astronauts headed to the international space station include a Twittering skipper, a classically trained musician who named her son after one of Columbia’s fallen astronauts, and a former Navy SEAL who went into Afghanistan two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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The High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has obtained images of Hephaestus Fossae, a region on Mars dotted with craters and channel systems.
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ESA PR 10-2009 Two of the most ambitious missions ever attempted to unveil the secrets of the darkest, coldest and oldest parts of the Universe got off to a successful start this afternoon with the dual launch of ESA’s far infrared space telescope Herschel and cosmic background mapper Planck on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
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2009 May 30
The beautifulTrifid Nebulais a colorful study in cosmic contrasts.Also known as M20, it lies about5,000light-years away toward thenebula richconstellation Sagittarius.A star forming region in the plane of our galaxy,the Trifid illustrates three different types ofastronomical nebulae;red emission nebulae dominated bylight emitted by hydrogen atoms,blue reflection nebulae producedby dust reflecting starlight, anddark nebulae wheredense dust clouds appear in silhouette.The bright red emission region, roughly separated into threeparts by obscuring, dark dust lanes, lends the Trifid its popular name.In this gorgeouswide view, the red emission is also juxtaposed withthe telltale blue haze of reflection nebulae.Pillars and jets sculpted bynewborn stars, left of the emission nebula’s center, appearin Hubble Space Telescope close-up imagesof the region.The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across.
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With the arrival of three new crewmembers including ESA astronaut Frank De Winne at the International Space Station on Friday, the resident Station crew increases to six for the first time. Media representatives are invited to participate in the first Expedition 20 crew news conference on 1 June.
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