Questions tagged [esa]
Questions related to structure, operations, missions, and facilities of the European Space Agency, an intergovernmental organization of 20 European states and Canada.
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Is there such a thing as the Freedom of Information Act for the ESA?
Is data produced by the European Space Agency covered by any such thing as the Freedom of Information Act like in the United States?
That is, are data produced by ESA programs freely available much ...
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Does naming cargo space craft indicate intentions?
ESA committed to launching 5 ATV vehicles. All 5 were named.
JAXA has committed to a limited number of HTV launches. And all have been named.
Orbital has contracted for 8 launches, and seems to be ...
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994 views
Excluding Russia, has Europe launched a single satellite or spacecraft into Earth's orbit and beyond from its own continent?
I was going through the list of European rocket launch sites on Wikipedia, and I can't find a single reference for an orbited satellite launched from any of them. Honestly, I wasn't even aware of most ...
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1answer
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Which launch sites were considered for Ariane 6?
I often see it mentioned that the selection of the launch site for Ariane 6 was one of the preliminary requirements that froze its final design. That does make sense, especially since there was some ...
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What is the flight plan to get Gaia in orbit around the Sun–Earth $L_2$ Lagrangian point?
Gaia is a planned European Space Agency's (ESA) space observatory that will aim to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. It is planned to operate around the Sun–Earth $L_2$ (SEL2)...
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Where is Giotto now?
Launched in 1985, ESA's Giotto became the first spacecraft to visit a comet. Since then it has done at least some Earth flybys/slingshots to visit other comets.
This image from the Wiki article ...
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1answer
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Swarm: Is ESA launching another set of aerodynamically streamlined satellites into LEO without any self-destruct system onboard?
ESA's GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite is receiving a lot of attention these days, ever since it was announced it ran out of Xenon propellant used by its ion ...
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Do astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) actually use their legs?
The European Space Agency writes to say
◾The applicant must have the normal range of motion and functionality in all joints.
Historically, IMHO, astronauts came from a flight/test-pilot background....
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Why are Europe’s Air & Space Academy and DLR urging ESA and CNES to reconsider the use of solid fuels for the proposed Ariane 6?
With Ariane 6 launch site selected, CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, the French space agency) was aiming to freeze the design of the new rocket in May 24, 2013. A few days after and that same ...
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3answers
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How much of an advantage do equator-proximal launch sites provide?
Comparing ESA's Kourou (5° off) with NASA's Cape Canaveral (28°) and JAXA's Tanegashima (30°) launch sites, how advantageous is proximity to the equator? Considering the fact that the ESA and all of ...
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Why did the ESA choose SPARC for LEON?
In late 1997, the European Space Agency started the LEON project to provide higher performance processors for ESA missions. An open instruction set architecture was a first-level requirement (both to ...
