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Science & Exploration

N° 26–2023: Media invitation: Euclid pre-launch press briefings

7 June 2023

The European Space Agency (ESA)’s Euclid mission, which will explore the dark Universe, will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, not earlier than 1 July 2023.  

Journalists are invited to learn more about this unique cosmology mission by joining pre-launch press briefings, available in several languages, which will take place throughout June 2023.  

The programme below highlights the different media activities planned and their respective registration process. 

Please note that journalists wishing to attend several of the events mentioned below should register for each activity separately to ensure that they receive the right link/information for each event.   

ESA will also host a European media event at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, on launch day. The invitation for this event will be sent separately once a launch date has been confirmed.  

Euclid is designed to explore the evolution of the dark Universe. It will create a 3D-map of the Universe (with time as the third dimension) by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky.   
By observing the Universe evolving over the past 10 billion years, Euclid will reveal how it has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history. From this data, astronomers will be able infer the properties of dark energy and dark matter, which together contribute 95% of the Universe, and gravity, revealing more about their exact nature. 

Pre-launch press briefing per language 

Tuesday 13 June 2023, 10:30-12:00 CEST: in-person question and answer session in Spanish  

Location: European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain 

Participants

  • Guadalupe Cañas, Postdoctoral Researcher in Cosmology, ESA 
  • Xavier Dupac, Euclid Operations Scientist, ESA 
  • Guillermo Buenadicha, Euclid Science Operations Coordinator, ESA 
  • Lucía Linares, Head of Institutional Flight and Strategy, Space Transportation Directorate, ESA (connection via teams for additional questions) 
  • Susana Infante, Project Manager and International Coordinator for Euclid’s communication system, Thales Alenia Space  

Registration: Please express interest for this event by Monday 12 June at 15:00 CEST by selecting and completing the relevant form at https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form 

Tuesday 13 June, 14:30-16:00 CEST: online pre-launch press briefing in French 

Participants

  • Bruno Altieri, Euclid Archive Scientist, ESA 
  • Yannick Mellier, Euclid Consortium Lead and Astronomer, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris 
  • André Debus, Euclid Programme Manager, CNES 
  • Marc Sauvage, French representative on the Euclid Consortium Board and Astrophysicist, CEA 
  • Ezio Ciancetta, Euclid Deputy Program Manager, Thales Alenia Space   

Registration: Please express interest for this event by Monday 12 June at 17:00 CEST by sending an email to cnes-presse@cnes.fr.  

Wednesday 14 June, 10:30-12:00 CEST: hybrid question and answer session in Italian 

Location: Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) Headquarters, Rome, Italy 

Participants

  • Giuseppe Racca, Euclid Project Manager, ESA 
  • Barbara Negri, Head of the Human Flights and Scientific Experimentation unit, ASI 
  • Anna Maria Di Giorgio, Technical-scientific coordinator of the ASI-INAF agreement for the Euclid mission, INAF  
  • Luca Stanco, Eucid-INFN national coordinator 
  • Walter Cugno, VP Exploration and Science, Thales Alenia Space 

Registration: Please express interest for this event by Monday 12 June at 17:00 CEST by sending an email to stampa@asi.it. Please mention if you will be attending this event in person or remotely.  

Friday 16 June, 15:00 CEST: in-person pre-launch media event in Dutch 

Location: Space Expo, Noordwijk, Netherlands 

Participants

Guadalupe Cañas, Postdoctoral Researcher in Cosmology, ESA 

Other participants to be confirmed shortly.  

Registration: Please express interest for this event by sending an email to Marieke Baan (NOVA, h.m.baan@uva.nl) or Jasper Wamsteker (NSO, j.wamsteker@spaceoffice.nl).  

Friday 23 June, 14:00 - 15:00 CEST: online pre-launch press briefing in English

Participants

  • Giuseppe Racca, Euclid Project Manager, ESA  
  • René Laureijs, Euclid Project Scientist, ESA 
  • Yannick Mellier, Euclid Consortium Lead and Astronomer at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris 
  • Guadalupe Cañas, Research Fellow, ESA  
  • Lucía Linares, Head of Strategy and Institutional Launches, Space Transportation, ESA 
  • Paolo Musi, Euclid Program Manager, Thales Alenia Space 

Registration: Please express interest for this event by Wednesday 21 June at 17:00 CEST by selecting and completing the relevant form at https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form 

Friday 23 June, 15:00-16:00 CEST: online question and answer session in German 

Participants

  • Markus Kissler-Patig, Head of Science and Operations Department, ESA 
  • Andreas Rudolph, Flight Operations Director, ESA 
  • Tobias Boenke, Euclid Mission System Engineer, ESA 

Registration: Please express interest for this event by 22 June at 17:00 CEST by selecting and completing the relevant form at https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form 

ESA Web TV 

The English pre-launch press briefing will be streamed via ESA Web TV. 

Registration  

Please note that each event has a its own registration procedure and journalists wishing to attend several of the opportunities mentioned above should register for each activity separately to ensure that they receive the right link/information for each event.  

More Information 

The Euclid mission kit is available in English on https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/Euclid_launch_kit  

Images 

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Search?SearchText=euclid  

ESA's Photo Library for Professionals: 

https://www.esa-photolibrary.com/ 

Terms and conditions for using ESA images: 

www.esa.int/spaceinimages/ESA_Multimedia/Copyright_Notice_Images 

For questions or more information related to ESA images, please contact directly spaceinimages@esa.int 

Videos 

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Search?SearchText=Euclid&result_type=videos 

ESA's Video Library for Professionals: 

https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos_for_Professionals 

Terms and conditions for using ESA videos: https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Terms_and_Conditions 

For questions or more information related to ESA videos, please contact directly spaceinvideos@esa.int 

Social Media 

Hashtag:  #ESAEuclid 

Follow ESA on: 
Twitter:   @esa       @esascience  @esa_euclid 
Instagram: Europeanspaceagency 
Facebook: EuropeanSpaceAgency 
YouTube: ESA 
LinkedIn: European Space Agency - ESA 
Pinterest: European Space Agency - ESA 

About the European Space Agency 

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space. 

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world 

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia are Associate Members. 

ESA has established formal cooperation with four Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement. 

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions. 

Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int  

For further information  

ESA Newsroom and Media Relations Office  

Email: media@esa.int