ESOC: Mapping a Route Through Space
ESA TV Exchanges
Finding your way in space is no easy task. Navigating around the stars is the difficult and risky job of ESOC - the European Centre of Space Operations in Germany.
Todays Exchange presents, on the eve of the Venus Express launch, how ESA's missions into deep space are planned and the orbits tracked.
The script is online as a PDF file under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS42202.pdf
A pre-view video clip can be downloaded from http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mplo/esoc1_07112005_wmplow.wmv (Media Player, 4.3 MB) or http://esatv-movies.e-vision.nl/videos/mp4/esoc1_07112005_mpg4.mov (Quicktime 22.6 MB)
More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMR7U3J2FE_index_2.html

Mapping a Route through Space
Finding your way in space is no easy task. Navigating around the stars is the difficult and risky job of ESOC - the European Centre of Space Operations in Germany. Step behind the scenes and see how missions are planned and tracked.
Someone is lost in the wood. A compass helps get back on course.
Really nothing is easier than to lose your way among the trees.
The only landmark is the sun, but that's a bad choice - it's always on the move. What you need is an old fashioned compass - then just follow the arrow. The difficulties of navigating in space are, of course, far greater with multiple directions and ever changing points. Satellite and other spacecraft must travel with the utmost precision - at more than 28,000 kilometres an hour with the added complication of sending data and receiving orders. To go behind the scenes, head to Darmstadt in Germany - home of the European Centre of Space Operations - ESOC. It's in the Flight Dynamics room that the orders are given for a cra