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F6BVP > SPACE 06.09.95 04:07l 118 Lines 4800 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : PR33-95
Read: GUEST
Subj: ESA launch six scientific satellites
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F6BVP
Sent: 950905/2049Z @:F6BVP.FRPA.FRA.EU #:34451 [Paris] FBB5.15c $:PR33-95
From: F6BVP@F6BVP.FRPA.FRA.EU
To : SPACE@WW
Press release No. 33-95
Paris, 5 September 1995
ESA to launch six scientific satellites
The European Space Agency is preparing to launch an armada
of scientific spacecraft to study the sun, our local space
environment and the far reaches of the universe. These three
ground-breaking missions are due for launch between
November 1995 and January 1996.
The Infrared Space Observatory, ISO, will lead the trio into
space. It will be launched on an Ariane 4 rocket in early
November from the European launch site at Kourou, French
Guiana. It will be followed in mid-December by SOHO, the
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, which will be launched
by an Atlas IIAS rocket from Cape Canaveral, USA. Finally,
in mid-January the four Cluster probes will be carried into
space on the inaugural flight of Ariane 5.
ISO is the world's only orbiting infrared observatory and is
the most sophisticated ever. Its sensitive detectors will be
cooled to below -270 degrees C, allowing it to observe cool
objects in space, invisible through ordinary telescopes. ISO's
many scientific goals include studying newly formed stars and
planets, investigating the aging process of galaxies and search
for the universe's elusive 'dark matter' that is believed to
outweigh visible stars and galaxies.
The SOHO observatory will provide scientists with a
comprehensive study of the sun, the nuclear powerhouse in
the centre of our solar system. Its twelve experiments,
developed by
scientists from Europe and the United States, will investigate
the sun from its core outwards -from the very inner workings
of the star, to the solar wind which blows through the solar
system.
The four identical Cluster spacecraft will focus on studying
the interaction of the sun with plasmas of the Earth and the
magnetic field in a region known as the magnetosphere. The
four probes, flying in formation, will allow scientists to build
up a three-dimensional picture of the battle between the sun's
streams of wind and the Earth's protective magnetic field.
These missions represent years of work by scientists across
Europe and around the world. The data they gather will
provide us with a greater understanding of our own solar
neighbourhood and deep space.
SPACECRAFT STATUS AS AT 1 SEPTEMBER 95:
ISO
The ISO satellite, together with all the associated equipment,
was transported in June by ship to Europe's spaceport in
Kourou, French Guiana. Since then, all the satellite
subsystems and scientific instruments have been thoroughly
tested and found to be in order. ISO is now waiting its turn
to be mated with the Ariane 44P launcher. The launch
campaign will resume in early October for a launch on 3
November.
Preparations for flight operations by ESA's space operation
centre, ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany and the flight control
centre at Villafranca, near Madrid, Spain are also in the final
stages. Most of the work in the last two months before a
launch involves training and performing simulations to prove
flight readiness. The scientific community is eagerly awaiting
the preliminary results of ISO's first look into space in
November.
SOHO
SOHO arrived at Kennedy Space Centre on 1 August. It was
given a welcome by hurricane ERIN, which forced an
immediate transfer to its reserved NASA facility just after its
transport plane had safely landed.
Spacecraft preparation for launch has started with a thorough
check of all the systems and instruments onboard SOHO and
will proceed with an end-to-end test with the NASA control
station at Goddard Spaceflight Centre.
Parallel activities are proceeding in Europe on the final testing
and inspection of the four reaction wheels which the
spacecraft control system uses to keep all its instruments
pointed very precisely at the sun.
At the end of its preparation, the spacecraft will be mated to
its Atlas IIAS launcher, which is due to lift off in the first
week of December.
CLUSTER
All four Cluster spacecraft, together with all ancillary
equipment, have now arrived at Europe's spaceport in
Kourou, French Guiana. The spacecraft have been set up for
final electrical testing in the Final Assembly Building , a new
Ariane 5 facility.
Major milestones in the campaign are the start of spacecraft
fuelling operations at the beginning of November and the start
of integration of the spacecraft with the launch vehicle in
mid- December.
The Cluster launch campaign is proceeding on schedule for
the planned launch date of 17 January 1996. At the same
time, final acceptance tests are being carried out on the new
Ariane 5 launch vehicle components.
Note to TV editors:
Video indexes describing in detail the ISO, SOHO and
Cluster missions will be available on request from ESA PR as
from 15 September 1995.
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