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Author
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Topic: Mars Express on its way to the Red planet ...
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Philip
Member Posts: 4617
From: Brussels, BELGIUM
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted June 03, 2003 12:41 AM
   
The European Mars Express spaceprobe has been placed successfully in a
trajectory that will take it beyond the terrestrial environment and on the
way to Mars – getting there in late December. This first European Space
Agency probe to head for another planet will enter an orbit around Mars,
from where it will perform detailed studies of the planet’s surface, its
subsurface structures and its atmosphere. It will also deploy Beagle 2, a
small autonomous station which will land on the planet, studying its
surface and looking for possible signs of life, past or present.
The probe, weighing in at 1120 kg, was built on ESA’s behalf by a European
team led by Astrium. It set out on its journey to Mars aboard a
Soyuz-Fregat launcher, under Starsem operational management. The launcher
lifted off from Baïkonur in Kazakhstan on 2 June at 23.45 local time
(17:45 GMT). An interim orbit around the Earth was reached following a
first firing of the Fregat upper stage. One hour and thirty-two minutes
later the probe was injected into its interplanetary orbit.
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Jacques van Oene
Member Posts: 674
From: Houten, The Netherlands
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted June 03, 2003 06:17 AM
I was at ESA/ESTEC's visitor center the Space Expo in Noordwijk last night to follow the launch. Great coverage and there were about 500 !! people watching. Great party. Well done ESA.---- Jacques :-) Editor: www.spacepatches.info |
Jacques van Oene
Member Posts: 674
From: Houten, The Netherlands
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted June 03, 2003 09:13 AM
Here you can see some photograps I took last night:
http://members.chello.nl/~j.vanoene/ME.html
----
Jacques :-) Editor: www.spacepatches.info |
Philip
Member Posts: 4617
From: Brussels, BELGIUM
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted June 03, 2003 12:33 PM
Great Jacques ... not so many people here are interested in UNMANNED spaceflight ... but it will become very busy at the Red planet in the year to come !
Early NASA photos and SP-books on unmanned exploration of the Solar system are already "wanted items" for some of us ...
Open University of BBC provided great 4 page brochure issues on large format on the progress of the Mars Express / Beagle project ... more at;
http://www.beagle2.com/index.htm
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