Press Releases - April 2008
27 April 2008 - ESA
ESA's most advanced navigation satellite launched tonight
A further step towards the deployment of Europe’s Galileo global navigation satellite system was taken tonight, with the successful launch of ESA’s second Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE-B) satellite, carrying the most accurate atomic clock ever flown into space.
24 April 2008 - ESO
Austria Declares Intent To Join ESO
At a press conference today at the University of Vienna's Observatory, the Austrian Science Minister Johannes Hahn announced the decision by the Austrian Government to seek membership of ESO from 1 July this year.
17 April 2008 - ESA
GMES Sentinel-2 satellite contract signed
The European Space Agency and Astrium today signed a €195 million contract to provide the first Sentinel-2 earth observation satellite, devoted to monitoring the land environment, as part of the European GMES programme. As prime contractor, Astrium is responsible for the design, development and integration of the satellite, which will perform a high-end multi-spectral optical imaging mission.
16 April 2008 - ESA
Recruitment and assignment of Directors at ESA
Meeting in restricted session yesterday at ESA’s Head Office in Paris, the Council of the European Space Agency appointed the new Directors that will assist the Director General in the coming years, following a process of selection that started in November 2007.
16 April 2008 - ESO
Paranal Receives New Mirror
A 4.1-metre diameter primary mirror, a vital part of the world's newest and fastest survey telescope, VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) has been delivered to its new mountaintop home at Cerro Paranal, Chile. The mirror will now be coupled with a small camera for initial testing prior to installing the main camera in June. Full scientific operations are due to start early next year. VISTA will form part of ESO's Very Large Telescope facility.
15 April 2008 - ESO
The Drifting Star
By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theories of star and planet formation, and for the dynamics of our Milky Way.
14 April 2008 - ESA
Contract signed for ESA’s Sentinel-3 earth observation satellite
The European Space Agency and Thales Alenia Space today signed a €305 million contract to provide the first Sentinel-3 earth observation satellite, devoted to oceanography and land-vegetation monitoring, as part of the European GMES programme. As prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the satellite’s design, development and integration.
10 April 2008 - ESA
ESA to recruit new European astronauts
With ESA astronauts working in the Columbus laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the first of ESA’s new ATV cargo ships having delivered fresh supplies to the station, ESA’s human spaceflight activities have entered a new era. It is now time for ESA to seek out new talent to bolster its Astronaut Corps for future manned missions to the ISS, the Moon and beyond.
8 April 2008 - EMBL
An unexpected way to cause leukaemia
New mouse model grants insight into the genetic and molecular mechanisms underpinning acute myeloid leukaemia.
3 April 2008 - ESA
Europe’s automated ship docks to the ISS
The ATV Jules Verne, European Space Agency’s first resupply and reboost vehicle, has successfully performed a fully automated docking with the International Space Station (ISS).
2 April 2008 - ESO
A Burst to See
On 19 March, Nature was particularly generous and provided astronomers with the wealth of four gamma-ray bursts on the same day. But that was not all: one of them is the most luminous object ever observed in the Universe. Despite being located in a distant galaxy, billions of light years away, it was so bright that it could have been seen, for a brief while, with the unaided eye.