November 2018
BepiColombo – a mission to explore Mercury
... instruments. Together, the two make up BepiColombo, which will be launched on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana in October 2018. It will use the gravity of Earth, Venus and Mercury, in combination with the thrust provided...
April 2019
LISA Pathfinder – paving the way for future studies of the gravitational universe
... the mission. Funding constraints led to the selection of a small launcher, the European Vega rocket launched from French Guiana. Due to Vega’s performance the spacecraft had to be injected into an eccentric low-Earth orbit (LEO) of around ~207km...
September 2019
A new era in planetary defence missions
... the Proba-V minisatellite and reported from ESA’s microgravity-reproducing parabolic aircraft and the launch site in French Guiana. An occasional comic strip writer, he is the author of The ESA Effect.
April 2020
Reviving Russia’s space programme
... western companies, the most improbable being launching the Soyuz rocket from the European Union territory of French Guiana in the south American jungle. More significantly, Russia’s rocket engines - still the most advanced in the world...
September 2020
High hopes for Brazil’s space ambitions
...’s Geostationary and Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite (SGDC) was launched from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana in 2017 for Brazilian government civil and military applications. Early success Investment in space has a cross...
April 2021
Satellite servicing comes of age
... that are still operating, but lack sufficient fuel, to achieve a graveyard orbit. Launch of MEV-2 from French Guiana on 15 August 2020. Excitingly for SpaceLogistics, MEV-1 is only the first is a series of satellite servicing vehicles, with...
