Tag: Astrium
-
Astrium: Approx. 807,000,000 km, Rousing Rosetta
At 10.00 GMT on 20 January 2014, out in deep space near Jupiter, an alarm will go off. This will be the signal to rouse the Astrium-built comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta from the deep sleep it has been in for the previous 31 months. Rosetta was launched in March 2004 on a mission to rendez-vous with…
-
Testing times for Bridget
A Mars rover prototype designed by Astrium to advance new interplanetary exploration technology is being put through its paces in an environment that is as close as possible to that of the Red Planet – the Atacama Desert in Chile. Among the driest places on Earth, it lacks any vegetation and its reddish brown soil…
-
Swarm : Why magnetism matters
Built by Astrium, the European Space Agency (ESA) Swarm mission will measure the Earth’s magnetic field with unprecedented levels of accuracy. The three Swarm satellites will fly in a triangular formation to build up a complete picture of the Earth’s magnetic field and how it’s changing. The satellites will study everything from the core to…
-
Solar powered High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite successful test flight
Astrium has successfully completed the first flight of its long endurance Zephyr solar powered High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) since it acquired the assets of the Zephyr programme in March 2013 from QinetiQ in the UK. The flight of the Zephyr took place at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, USA, in August 2013. Astrium’s HAPS…
-
Two studies awarded to Astrium
Astrium, Europe’s number-one space company, has been awarded two studies by the European Space Agency (ESA) to define how to evolve technologies used on the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and the Columbus space laboratory for future space vehicles. The envisaged value of both studies is €13 million (€6.5 million per study).