ESA Top News
ESA Top News

• Ministers meet to define the role of space in delivering global objectives
  ESA PR 44-2008. Ministers in charge of space activities within the now 18 ESA Member States and Canada will meet in The Hague (the Netherlands) on 25 and 26 November to implement the European Space Policy, setting out the start of future programmes and taking decisions on the next phases of on-going programmes.
• ESA supports efforts to protect public health and safety
  A consortium of Portuguese and Italian companies, led by the Portuguese National Health Institute and with the support of ESA, is developing a Health Early Warning System designed to enable timely detection and tracking of emerging threats to public health and safety via satellite.
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights reaches space as the ISS gets ready for crew of six
  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was carried into space early this morning with the successful launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
• OK Space: opening new horizons
  Space exploration - the big scientific missions, manned flights, technology which grows ever more complex - in short, a great adventure. But that's not all, space has given rise to a number of applications, devices and inventions that we use in our everyday lives.
• Czech flag raised over ESA
  A historic event took place at ESA sites across Europe today - the flag of the Czech Republic was hoisted alongside those of ESA's other Member States, officially symbolising the country becoming ESA’s 18th Member State.
• Space software to control digital TV broadcasting
  Imagine how difficult it is to control a spacecraft thousands of miles away, ensure it arrives at the right location and then get the scientific and photographic equipment up and running. To do this highly sophisticated software is needed; software that can also be used on Earth to manage equally complex TV terrestrial broadcasting.
• Lunar spacecraft reaches its final orbit
  India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft successfully reached its final operational orbit around the Moon on 12 November 2008. The spacecraft is now circling the Moon at an altitude of about 100 km.
• GENSO - Call for Proposals for new students or teams
  The ESA Education Office is currently looking for student teams to fill the following vacancies in the Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations project.
• ESA’s ‘treasure trove’ on YouTube
  ESA is launching its own YouTube site in a new initiative to communicate even more widely with the general public by using the latest social media channels.
• Chandrayaan-1 now in lunar orbit
  Chandrayaan-1, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) lunar orbiter, was captured into orbit around the Moon on 8 November. One day later, the spacecraft performed a manoeuvre that lowered the closest point of its orbit down to 200 km from the Moon.
• Step closer to crew selection for simulated Mars mission
  The crew selection for a simulated Mars mission moved a step closer to completion recently with ESA's last eight candidates being put through extensive medical screening in Moscow. Two of the European candidates will be chosen to join four Russian crew members on a 105-day study due to start in March next year.
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights flies into space
  ESA PR 43-2008. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a sprit of brotherhood”, states Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
• Space tech improves public transport in rural areas
  Many rural areas face a lack of public transportation connections. Although the need of public transportation services is undeniable, allocating buses on scheduled routes and times is financially unjustifiable. The Canadian-Belgium ‘SatelBus’ project solves this by creating an efficient ‘bus on demand’ service.
• Second European CubeSat Workshop
  Following on from the successful “Vega Maiden Flight CubeSat Workshop” held at ESA/ESTEC in January 2008, which was the first CubeSat workshop to be held at European-level, the ESA Education Office is pleased to announce the Second European CubeSat Workshop one year later as planned.
• Chandrayaan-1 now in lunar transfer trajectory
  Yesterday, following a fifth orbit-raising manoeuvre, the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft successfully settled into a trajectory that will take it to the Moon.
• Germany's CESAR crowned king of rovers in ESA’s Robotics Challenge
  A robot rover designed by a Bremen university team has won an ESA contest to retrieve soil samples from a lunar-style terrestrial crater. Eight student teams fielded rovers during the event, their progress monitored by an advanced 3-D viewer already flight-tested in space and planned for eventual deployment on the Moon.
• ESA Bulletin (No. 136, November 2008)
  The November 2008 issue of the Bulletin, ESA’s flagship magazine, features ESA astronaut Frank De Winne on the cover. De Winne is the next European astronaut to fly to the International Space Station for a six-month mission in May 2009.
• Satellites helping aid workers in Honduras
  Humanitarian aid workers responding to devastating flooding in Honduras have received assistance from space, with satellite images of affected areas provided rapidly following activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.
• Hubble is back in business, and scores a perfect ‘10’
  The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is back in business with a snapshot of the fascinating galaxy pair Arp 147. The science operations were resumed on 25 October 2008, four weeks after a problem with the science data formatter took the spacecraft into safe mode.
• Detecting dirty bomb material with ESA gamma-ray technology
  Thanks to ESA and UK technology transfer support, a British company has developed a device based on the gamma-ray detection equipment used in ESA’s Integral astronomy satellite to detect and identify the radioactive material mixed with conventional explosives in ‘dirty bombs’.
• Arctic sea ice thinning at record rate
  The thickness