Welcome everyone! It's time for another new rocket!

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-07-09 19:00 | |

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| | Scheduled for (local) | 2024-07-09 16:00 (GFT) | | Launch site | ELA-4, Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana | | Launch vehicle | Ariane 62 | | Payloads | Multiple | | Mission success criteria | Successful launch and deployment of payloads into Low Earth Orbit |

Livestreams

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | ESA (English) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0oFpOJaIYc | | ESA (Français) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfNPzSOalEU | | ESA (Deutsch) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_87OnvB_fQ | | ESA (clean feed) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogXamYYJpQk | | Arianespace (English) | | | Arianespace (Français) | | | Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQhzzFK5sgs | | Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ch6wPRb4Og | | NASASpaceflight | | | Everyday Astronaut | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1WGk5XSNXk | | The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPAG2TG63oA |

Stats

☑️ 1st ever Ariane 6 mission

☑️ 1st ESA mission of 2024, 15th mission overall

Payload info

• SpaceCase SC-X01: Test platform for reentry technologies such as new-generation ablative materials for thermal protection systems.
• GRBBeta: 1U CubeSat – Gamma Ray Burst detection
• ISTSAT: 1U CubeSat – Characterisation of aircraft’s ‘cone of silence’ and in-flight performances of a custom-made Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system.
• 3Cat4: 1U CubeSat – Techno demo Flexible Microwave Payload.
• OOV-Cube: Microsatellite – IoT agriculture use case demo.
• CuriumOne: With a duplicate ASTRIS Engineering Qualification Model PCB as primary payload.

Please feel free to post updates and questions in the comments!

Launch window: Tuesday 9th of July from 21 - 24 CEST

English Live stream

German Live Stream

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16921003

Interview with Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA director of space transportation

ESA and Vast signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) June 6 during the ILA Berlin air show, agreeing to study collaboration on the commercial space stations that Vast plans to develop, starting with the Haven-1 station Vast plans to launch in the second half of next year.

According to the statement, ESA and Vast will study potential use of Vast stations by ESA and its member states. They will also look for roles for European industry for providing components for Vast’s stations, as well as use of future European crew and cargo spacecraft.

Fingers crossed for our new European launcher 🤞

TLDR:

June 18 : wet dress rehearsal

Launch: first two weeks of July

Tentative date to be announced during ILA airshow between 5-9 of June

The French space agency CNES has announced a partnership with Spartan Space, the Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology (MEDES), and the sporting goods retailer Decathlon to develop a European intra-vehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit.

ESA’s EarthCARE satellite, poised to revolutionise our understanding of how clouds and aerosols affect our climate, has been launched. This extraordinary satellite embarked on its journey into space on 29 May at 00:20 CEST (28 May, 15:20 local time) aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US.

ESA’s Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission is getting ready for lift-off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg, California, with a target launch date of no earlier than 28 May 2024. Save the date and watch the launch live on ESA WebTV or ESA YouTube.

Can I ask how everyone personally feels about using nuclear material for space exploration? For the rovers heating elements it will be just a couple of grams but for generating electricity via a RTG a spacecraft would require several kilograms of radioactive material.

Researchers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of a rocky planet atmosphere outside our Solar System.