Press Releases — 2009

On Thursday 14 January 2010, ESA's Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain will meet the press at the traditional start-of-year gathering at ESA’s headquarters in Paris. The meeting will begin at 08:30 with breakfast, followed at 09:00 by a press briefing to go over the Agency’s activities in the year just ended and take a look at activities to come in 2010. 

The Soyuz TMA-15 reentry module landed safely in Kazakhstan at 08:15:34 CET (13:15:34 local time), bringing ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk back to Earth.

Ministers from the 29 European Space Agency and European Union Member States will meet in Prague on 23 October for the 1st EU-ESA International Conference on Human Space Exploration,to prepare a roadmap leading to the definition of a common vision and strategic planning for space exploration. This first step in a process that will lead to the definition of a European vision in this field stems from a Resolution adopted by the 5th Space Council (*) in September 2008. Besides Ministers and delegates from the EU,ESA and third countries,the conference will also be attended by Members of Parliament and representatives of industry and academia. 

On Monday 14 September media representatives will have the opportunity to attend an in-depth CryoSat background briefing at IABG’s spacecraft test centre in Ottobrunn near Munich, Germany. Project managers from ESA and industry, as well as scientists and other experts, will give presentations on the spacecraft and its scientific objectives and will be available for individual interviews. The programme (see below) includes a visit to the clean room to see the satellite at first hand before it is packed and shipped to the Baikonur launch base in Kazakhstan.

The 48th International Paris Air Show will open its doors on Monday 15 June, until Sunday 21 June. Almost 2,000 exhibitors will be present and over 200,000 visitors are expected to attend this traditional event which this year has special significance as it celebrates its 100th anniversary (the first Paris Air Show was held in 1909 in the city’s Grand Palais).

Ministers in charge of space activities representing the Member States of the European Space Agency and the European Union met in Brussels today for the Sixth Space Council*. Today’s Council was jointly chaired by Miroslava Kopicová, the Czech Republic’s Minister of Education, on behalf of the EU Competitiveness Council, and Mariastella Gelmini, Italian Minister for Education, University & Research and current Chair of the ESA Council at Ministerial Level.

ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is heading to the International Space Station at the start of his six-month OasISS mission. Together with Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, De Winne launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 12:34 CEST (10:34 UT) today.

The Soyuz rocket that will bring ESA astronaut Frank De Winne to the International Space Station for the OasISS mission is set to launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on 27 May at 12:34 CEST. 

Two of the most ambitious missions ever attempted to unveil the secrets of the darkest, coldest and oldest parts of the Universe got off to a successful start this afternoon with the dual launch of ESA’s far infrared space telescope Herschel and cosmic background mapper Planck on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

This afternoon, the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) was lofted into a near-sunsynchronous, low Earth orbit by a Rockot launcher lifting off from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia. 

ESA is about to launch the most sophisticated of Earth Observation satellites to investigate the Earth’s gravitational field with unprecedented resolution and accuracy. GOCE data will be crucial for obtaining accurate measurements of ocean circulation and sea-level change, both of which are affected by climate change. The data will help to better understand processes occurring inside the Earth which are linked to volcanoes and earthquakes. 

Today in Brussels, the amendment to the EC-ESA GMES agreement was signed by Mr Jean-Jacques Dordain, the European Space Agency (ESA) Director General, and Mr Heinz Zourek, Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry. 

On Wednesday 14 January 2009, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain will meet the press at ESA Headquarters in Paris. The gathering will start at 08:30 with breakfast, followed at 09:00 by a press briefing to review the Agency’s activities in 2008 and look ahead to those of 2009, a year set to be full of events and marked by several major launches i.e. Herschel-Planck, GOCE, SMOS and CryoSat. 

Press conferences, exhibitions, launches, political events… the list of the main communications activities that ESA will be involved in is taking shape. Pencil these dates into your diaries as of now.