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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What is the status of ESA's proposed human mission to the Moon?
As part of the Aurora Exploration Programme, there is a proposed human mission to the Moon in 2024. The astronaut capsule would be launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket.
What is the status of this mission?...
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2answers
617 views
Are commercial rocket launches by ESA profitable?
ESA provides commercial satellite launches. But is this actually a profitable business?
When you would subtract the cost of any purely scientific activities and only look at the commercial launches, ...
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1answer
174 views
How much of the Orion vehicle will be built or provided by Airbus/ESA?
Does this mean that, for all the fanfare, the USA's actual contribution to the future of human-flight space exploration based on this particular vehicle is now rather less than is economically-...
7
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1answer
225 views
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 ...
2
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0answers
142 views
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 ...
10
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2answers
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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 ...
5
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1answer
706 views
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 ...
9
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2answers
437 views
What is the flight plan to get Gaia in orbit around the SunāEarth $L_2$ 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 SunāEarth $L_2$ (SEL2)...
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1answer
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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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2answers
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Do astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) actually use their legs?
The European Space Agency writes to say
ā¾The 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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3answers
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Why are Europeās 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 dāEtudes 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 (5Ā° off) with NASA's Cape Canaveral (28Ā°) and JAXA's Tanegashima (30Ā°) launch sites, how advantageous is proximity to the equator? Considering the fact that the ESA and all of ...
15
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1answer
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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 ...
