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Opportunity: the rover of all records
As the InSight lander finished deploying the HP3 thermal probe on the surface of the red planet, NASA announced the official end of the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Launched more than 15 years ago, this mission included two rovers: Spirit and Opportunity. It was the latter which, after many years of faithful service and extensive…
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64 satellites and a third launcher reuse! Who can top that?
SpaceX, that name surely rings a bell for you! But do you remember well the goal of this American company with its Falcon 9 launcher, and more particularly with the latest version, the Block 5? The aim is to reuse the first stage of the rocket about ten times without major repairs, and then up…
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BepiColombo, the instruments and the technical aspects of an extraordinary mission
The BepiColombo mission consists primarily of two orbiters: the European MPO and the Japanese MMO. Their objectives are different but they share a common goal: to help us learn more about the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury. This mission has diverse objectives across various themes: Planet formation and evolution: Determine how Mercury formed to…
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BepiColombo: The Story of a Highly Ambitious Mission
Mercury. The planet closest to the Sun. It remains highly mysterious to us. Only two space probes have explored it: Mariner 10, which flew by three times in 1974-75, and then MESSENGER, which orbited the planet’s poles from 2011 to 2015. Both missions were highly innovative and represented pioneers in space exploration. Unfortunately, neither fully…
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SAOCOM 1A: an Argentine observation satellite and supersonic booms in California.
If there’s one thing we’re starting to get used to, it’s the spectacular landings by SpaceX. These were typically done at three distinct locations: on land at Cape Canaveral, in the Atlantic on the OCISLY barge, or in the Pacific on the JRTI barge. However, with its launch on October 8, 2018, SpaceX inaugurated a…
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HTV, a 7th Cargo to the ISS
Did you know that Japan also sends spacecraft to the International Space Station? Yes, the H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV, is a Japanese cargo spacecraft, and the seventh in the family was launched on September 22, 2018 (at 19:52 CEST)! In addition to being the largest current spacecraft to dock with the ISS, it is…
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A unique satellite: Aeolus
The measurement of winds is an essential element of our daily lives. Whether it’s predicting the weather, determining where to place wind farms, constructing airports, or knowing when to evacuate populations during cyclones, understanding winds and having a monitoring system for them is crucial. It is for this purpose that Aeolus was created, the first…
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Parker Solar Probe: a Mission to Touch the Sun
On Sunday, August 12, 2018, an extraordinary mission took place: the launch of the Parker Solar Probe. This probe embarked on a journey into interplanetary space, but its destination is not another planet. No, it’s not aiming for a circular orbit to observe our star from afar. Instead, the Parker Solar Probe is set to…
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One day, two launches, fourteen satellites
Last Wednesday, on July 25, 2018, a rather rare event in the aerospace field occurred: Two launches less than 14 minutes apart! Alongside this coincidence, we naturally find ourselves with two payloads on their way to their orbits at the same time, which deserves to be highlighted. What are these payloads, you ask? There were…
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The second Falcon 9 Block 5 for the heaviest geostationary satellite.
Do you remember the launch of Bangabandhu-1? It was the first launch of the latest version of the Falcon 9: the Block 5! On Sunday, July 22, 2018, it was the turn of the Telstar 19V satellite to take off aboard a Block 5, the second one produced and launched by SpaceX. The launch took…