March 2016
Rosetta – Starting from Scratch
... teams were trained and looking forward to the start of the great adventure. The spacecraft was in Kourou, French Guiana, being prepared for launch. We were ready.
August 2016
Rosetta overcomes major setback
... and we were very concerned. Waiting for more concrete news, the project and industry teams in Kourou, French Guiana, continued to prepare the spacecraft for launch, and we did the same, completing our simulations programme. However...
February 2018
Growth drivers, requirements and threats in the smallsat industry
... an essential element to further reduce cost by avoiding costly transport of satellites to launch pads in the USA, French Guiana, Russia or Japan, and increase launch frequency. In addition, becoming a spaceport is a very promising opportunity for...
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.
