ESA: May 2009 Archives

credit ESA

Congratulations to the International Space Station partners and their first crew of six for the safe arrival of expedition 20's final three members and the start of a new era in research on station and with station itself, the biggest experiment of all

Watch a replay of the ingress here

I'm off down the pub

credit ESA / caption: Soyuz TMA-15 was launched on 27 May 2009, arrives at ISS on 29 May

Care of ESA and NASA, watch the docking of Soyuz TMA-15 live today at around 12:30h GMT here at ESA's website or on NASAtv here

The expansion of crew to six on the Internatioanl Space Station will enable its space agency partners to realise the science that underpins much of the justification for the station's expense

credit ESA / caption: 27 May is another major milestone for station and 29 May will see the six crew realised

Watch the video of today's launch in the extended portion of this blog post. International Space Station (ISS) expedition 20 ascends to low Earth orbit aboard an Energia Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft, launched by the TSKB-Progress Soyuz-FG rocket from Baikonur cosmodrome. The TMA-15's three passengers, Frank De Winne, Robert Thirsk and Roman Romanenko will join with ISS's expedition 19 team to bring about the first ISS crew of six

Go here to read ESA's information about its astronaut, Franke De Winne's, mission, details about Canadian Space Agency's Bob Thirsk are here and the Russian Federal Space Agency's report can be found here on pre-launch fun for the TMA-15 crew

credit ESA / caption: just in case you did not know that kazakhstan is a very flat and very barren country

The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft integrated with its TSKB-Progress Soyuz-FG rocket is rolled out to the Baikonur cosmodrome launch pad for its launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday 27 May at 12:34h CEST. It will carry Belgian born European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romenenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk


credit ESA / caption: don't get mud on those flight suits fellas!

De Winne (left), Romenenko (centre) and Thirsk (right) carry out the time honoured Russian ceremony of planting a tree before their 27 May 2009 launch on TMA-15 to the ISS. Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to see more roll out images - all photos are care of the European Space Agency

click on the images in this blog post to see larger versions in the same browser window

credit Reaction Engines / caption: the UK science minister Lord Drayson fully endorsed the Skylon concept

Air breathing rocket engine development company Reaction Engines was visited today by the UK government's minister of state for science and innovation Lord Paul Drayson of Kensington. He is responsible for the country's British National Space Centre

Drayson wanted to discuss the status of the Oxfordshire company's air breathing rocket engine work. Watch the video of Hyperbola's interview with Lord Drayson in the extended portion of this blog post. Behind Lord Drayson in the video is a technically detailed mockup of Reaction Engine's Sabre air breathing rocket engine

Hyperbola's interview with Reaction Engines managing director Alan Bond will be posted on Monday 25 May 2009

credit ESA / caption: Peake makes history but may not fly till after 2015

British Army air corps Agusta Westland Apache test pilot Timothy Peake has made history as the first UK citizen to be selected to be a space agency's astronaut

A Major Timothy Mace became backup to Helen Sharman in her Soviet government funded eight-day mission in May 1991 but never flew. Sharman's mission was not privately funded contrary to various reports

British born NASA astronauts Piers Sellers and Nick Patrick had to become US citizens to become astronauts while Cambridgeshire, England born Michael Foale had dual citizenship for family reasons

You can watch the European Space Agency press conference about its new astronaut selection live by webcast here today from 1215h GMT (1315h CET) but news about one of apparently six, not four, candidate astronauts has already leaked out to the British Broadcasting Corporation care of UK Ministry of Defence "sources"

In response to the leak the BBC story qoutes ESA human spaceflight director Simonetta Di Pippo as saying the agency wanted "additional astronauts". Previously ESA had talked about only four astronauts and four reserves

Interviewed by Hyperbola on 16 May Di Pippo would not be drawn on any aspects of the astronaut selection. Hyperbola had heard, but been unable to confirm, that a UK armed forces helicopter pilot had made it through much of the selection process and that a UK Royal Air Force pilot had also reached the last two dozen or so candidates and so had cheekily described the UK candidate as a "pilot-astronaut" in its 3 May 2009 blog post

Now it is known that a UK serviceman has been selected the question is, what deal was done? Because an astronaut is a major investment that has huge implications for the programmes that it is expected of nations to invest in. It must mean the UK will invest in optional programmes where previously the country has only paid into the mandatory ones

Hyperbola hopes to get an interview later today or tomorrow with the UK candidate and the UK minister for science and innovation (and space) Lord Drayson whose decision this would have been - along with his Prime minister Gordon Brown one imagines

credit ESA/caption:ESA's spaceflight head Simonetta Di Pippo is discussing low Earth orbit shipyards for Moonships

On 16 May 2009 the European Space Agency's human spaceflight director Simonetta Di Pippo spoke to Hyperbola about the upcoming phase one work for the proposed Advanced Re-entry Vehicle, the extension of International Space Station's (ISS) life, collaboration with the Russians and what ESA could tell the Norman Augustine led US human spaceflight plans review

Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the video. The interview occured at the Golden Palace hotel in Turin, Italy before the start of the ESA departure ceremony for the ISS' Tranquility Node 3 module

credit NASA / Flight / caption: Will it be a woman's face behind the visor?

Tomorrow on 20 May at 1315h central European time the European Space Agency is to announce its new astronaut selection and that will be followed later that day by a press conference by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) because the ESA event is expected to name a UK citizen, possibly a woman, as a member of the four reserve candidates. If the UK astronaut candidate is a woman the announcement will come 18-years and two-days since British Cosmonaut Helen Sharman was launched on her 10-day mission on 18 May 1991

credit NASA / caption: This pictures shows ATV-1 Jules Verne during its ISS mission in 2008

In 2010 the European Space Agency's second expendable Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) named Johannes Kepler will undergo its mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station

Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to see video recorded on 16 May 2009 at Thales Alenia Space's plant in Turin, Italy where ESA's cargo carrier section for its ATV Kepler is undergoing assembly in the clean room

credit Flight / caption: this end of Node 3 berths with the International Space Station

Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch a video of Node 3 in Thales Alenia Space's Turin plant's clean room

At Thales Alenia Space's plant on 16 May 2009 the European Space Agency held a departure ceremony for the International Space Station's Tranquility Node 3 module that will arrive at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on 20 May

credit Flight / caption: behind a huge glass wall sat Node 3 in its clean room

On Saturday 16 May at Thales Alenia Space's plant in Turin, Italy the European Space Agency held a departure ceremony for the International Space Station's (ISS) Tranquility Node 3 module that will arrive at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on 20 May. The video below gives a feel for what it was like at the ceremony and how Tranquility could be viewed from the room



Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the departure ceremony speeches by ESA human spaceflight director Simonetta Di Pippo and NASA ISS programme manager Michael Suffredini

credit ESA / caption: another major module for station is ready to go

Tomorrow Hyperbola will be attending the Tranquility Node 3 departure ceremony from Thales Alenia Space's Turin facility and so expect some live twittering and maybe a podcast (and even video) come Monday, hopefully with NASA International Space Station (ISS) programme manager Michael Suffredini and European Space Agency human spaceflight director Simonetta Di Pippo

The above graphic shows the ISS Node 3 Tranquility in its a previously planned location on station with other parts of the ISS identified. For more ISS info go here for ESA's website and here for NASA's. For previous Hyperbola ISS related posts go here and for archive Flight material about the 20 plus-year development of the station, go here

While on 20 May US journalists will get to see Tranquility upon its arrival at Kennedy Space Center and ESA that day will be announcing its new astronauts

credit ESA / caption: after a number of delays Herschel and Planck finally go into space

An Arianespace EADS Astrium Ariane 5 rocket launches the European Space Agency's Herschel and Planck space telescopes on 14 May from the French Guiana spaceport. Herschel has, at 3.5m (11.4ft), the largest mirror ever launched into space (hear that Hubble!) and with the help of some US technology it will observe the infra-red spectrum while Planck will study the universe's ancient radiation from the big bang

More images of the launch can be found here along with an animation and even a twitter channel link. Find more animations and an update on the misson's progress here and read here all about the spacecrafts' journey to their L2 destination

And then there is some other mission going on to fix some ageing blurry eyed space telescope called Hubble, which, by the way, is an ESA, NASA collaboration. ESA has a 15% share of the project. Further info on the STS-125 mission for Space Shuttle Atlantis crew can be found here at NASA and all over the internet, here, here and here


credit NASA

Oh well, so much for the UK reserve astronaut theory...

ESA PR 09-2009. ESA began the search for new astronauts in 2008, calling for applications from talented European citizens who wished to join the European Astronaut Corps to conduct future missions to the International Space Station, and one day to the Moon and beyond. Read more here

credit NASA / Flight / caption: Britain might not get to the Moon or station but it is a great leap forward

Hyperbola is hearing that the UK may well get its own member of the European Space Agency astronaut corps this June

Why so specific? ESA says that it intends to ask candidates to join its astronaut corps this summer after months of selection testing that ended with interviews with the space agency's director general Jean-Jacques Dordain

June is obviously, for us in the northern hemisphere, this summer, and it just so happens that that month will see an ESA, NASA bilateral meeting on what the agencies can do together after 2016 including Mars exploration. Don't take my word for it, acting NASA administrator Christopher Scolese mentioned it during the 29 April Congressional appropriations subcommittee hearing

So what has that got to do with a UK astronaut?