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ZL2VAL > SPACE 03.03.04 09:25l 110 Lines 4648 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 580582ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST DK3EL
Subj: Ariane launch, 3rd time lucky
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Sent: 040302/1956Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:36984 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : SPACE@WW
March 2, 2004
Europe's comet probe on its way after blastoff
Associated Press
DARMSTADT, Germany - A European rocket blasted off today on a
pioneering 10-year journey to land a probe on a comet and search for
clues to the solar system's origins.
The Rosetta lander soared into the skies above South America atop an
Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. About two hours later, a
17-minute engine burn sent the spacecraft out of the earth's
gravitational pull and on its way to the comet.
"We received the first communication from the spacecraft, which
means the spacecraft is in good shape at the moment. Everything
seems to be OK," Gaele Winters, the European Space Agency's director
of operational and technical support, said at mission control in
Darmstadt after the engine firing.
Rosetta is expected to reach an ice-caked comet called
67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko in May 2014 and go into orbit around it,
then release the lander that will try to touch down on the surface.
Previous spacecraft have made only brief fly-bys of comets.
A first launch attempt Thursday was scrapped because of high winds
in the upper atmosphere. The second attempt was abandoned Friday
when a routine inspection found that a piece of insulating foam had
fallen off the main booster stage - raising fears that ice could
form at the hole and break off after liftoff, possibly damaging the
rocket.
A chunk of insulation helped doom the U.S. space shuttle Columbia
last year when it broke off after launch and damaged the craft's
wing, leading to catastrophic failure during re-entry into the
atmosphere and the death of the crew of seven.
European space officials and scientists at mission control toasted
their success with champagne after Rosetta was blasted out of its
Earth orbit, accelerating to almost 40,000 kilometers an hour
(25,000 mph). In another critical step, the probe's solar panels -
its electrical power source - unfolded as planned, said flight
director Alan Smith.
"The spacecraft is where we wanted it to be," Smith said.
Scientists hope the mission will reveal clues about the birth of the
sun and the planets of the solar system, since comets are the
system's most primitive objects - formed when it was still very
young, more than 4.6 billion years ago.
Comets are believed to hold deep-frozen matter left over from the
birth of the sun and planets.
Since comets pelted Earth in the time after the solar system formed,
scientists theorize they may have brought some of the building
blocks for life, like water and organic materials onto our planet.
67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko, discovered by two Soviet astronomers in
1969, is only 3 to 5 kilometers (2 to 3 miles) in diameter and has
gravity so weak that the Rosetta lander will have to use a harpoon
and spikes to fasten itself to its surface.
The comet has been studied intensively using the orbiting Hubble
Space Telescope in preparation for the mission.
The euro1 billion (US$1.25 billion) mission is more than a year
behind schedule. ESA abandoned a January 2003 launch window after
another rocket in the Ariane-5 family veered off course the previous
month and had to be destroyed. The rocket that now launched the
comet probe is a more time-tested version.
Named for the Rosetta Stone tablet that helped historians decipher
Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Rosetta lander is to test the comet's
composition with nine experiments and a drill to take subsurface
samples.
The mission will send Rosetta on two excursions into the solar
system's main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. The craft will
take a roundabout route, swinging through the gravitational fields
of Earth and Mars during several fly-bys, picking up speed before
heading into deep space.
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin issued a statement
congratulating European space scientists for the launch's "perfect
success."
=========================
73 de Alan, (Sysop ZL2AB).
AX25:ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
APRS:!3903.34S/17406.45E]
IP :zl2val@qsl.net
Message timed: 08:51 on 2004-Mar-03 (NZT)
Message sent using WinPack-AGW V6.80
Points to ponder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marriage
~~~~~~~~
Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends.
You order what you want, then when you see what the other person has,
you wish you had ordered that instead.
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