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TGO short summer break
On 25 June, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will suspend its aerobraking campaign until the end of August due to Mars’ conjunction with the Sun. Trace Gas Orbiter at Mars Credit: ESA/ATG medialab With Mars...
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LISA Pathfinder still hard at work
Jose Mendes and visiting scientist Daniele Bortoluzzi discussing what the test masses are doing as we perform repeated release attempts. Credit: ESA So, while main science has ended as of today (see...
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LISA Pathfinder sails toward the Sun
LISA Pathfinder is ready for a new – and final – journey to the Sun! On 18 July, the LPF mission will conclude with the final commands sent to switch off the on-board transmitter. Since April, the...
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Ground stations go dancing with Cassini
A complex coordinated ‘dance’ between ESA and NASA tracking stations is following Cassini during its Grand Finale. In Cassini’s Grand Finale orbits – the final chapter of its nearly 20-year mission –...
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Aerobraking: Back to the future
After an approximately 11-week pause due to Mars conjunction and a major software update, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will restart its aerobraking campaign in September. Aerobraking, you’ll...
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Out of limits
Last week, Frederic Hemberger posted a query in Twitter Frederic asked: Do I know anybody working at @nasa or @esa? Saw a documentary about mission control and have a monitoring/interface question....
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Exceptional operations enable exceptional science
Commanding Integral to observe this unique ‘target of opportunity’ required engineers at ESA’s ESOC control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, to react in exceptionally short time under pressure, which was...
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Crossing Phobos
Editor’s note: Today’s update comes from ESA’s Armelle Hubault, a spacecraft operations engineer working on the ExoMars/TGO team at ESOC. The news? ESA’s ExoMars/TGO orbiter – now conducting a...
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Keeping up with TGO
Editor’s note: This week’s blog update comes courtesy of TGO Spacecraft Operations Manager Peter Schmitz at ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO)...
View ArticleESA reentry expertise
Every week, on average, a substantial, inert satellite drops into our atmosphere and burns up. Monitoring these reentries and warning European civil authorities has become routine work for ESA’s space...
View ArticleMars Express is good to go
A tired but very happy Mars Express flight control team pulled shift through the night between 16 and 17 April, overseeing the successful reboot and recovery of ESA’s nearly 15-year-old Red Planet...
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Satellite studying Earth’s diminishing ice swerves to avoid collision
CryoSat. Credit: ESA/P. Carril On Monday, 9 July 2018, engineers based at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Germany made the decision to alter the path of the CryoSat satellite, preventing a...
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Impacting the ‘dark side’
The Moon is as old as the Earth, at about 4.5 billion years of age. For as long as there have been creatures on Earth able to observe it, the Moon has been there to be seen. The dimpled Moon. Credit:...
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Mars Express — from worry, to water
In 2004, a year after Europe’s first mission to Mars was launched, the flight dynamics team at ESA’s operations centre encountered a serious problem. New computer models showed a worrying fate for the...
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Royal Astronomical Society award and 18 years of Cluster
The four Cluster satellites are now old enough to vote and have a driver’s license in most countries of the world, in spite of the fact that they have, in fact, been happily ‘driving’ themselves well...
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Protecting Mars Express during coronavirus outbreak
In response to the Covid-19 outbreak, people across the globe are being asked to work from home where possible in order to limit personal contact and reduce the further spread of the infection. As of...
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Keeping our eyes on Earth open
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, people across the globe are being asked to work from home where possible in order to limit personal contact and reduce the further spread of the infection. As...
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ESA Mars orbiters: two-for-one science
In BriefThe arsenal of science instruments on board any spacecraft is carefully planned, built and tested during the mission’s development – a long time before it is launched into space. But ESA’s...
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