The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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The payload module of the MetOp-C weather satellite draped with umbilical cryogenic lines linked to blackbodies to cool the module's instrument panels and radiators down to representative space conditions during vacuum testing inside the Large Space Simulator in March 2017.
Eleven blackbodies are required in all, their temperatures controlled to within 100–30ºC of absolute zero.
Accordingly, a complex structure has been designed to position these blackbodies as close as possible to the instruments, with piping variously supplying liquid nitrogen and helium gas, all covered with multilayer insulation to minimise any thermal effect on the satellite.