ESA Operations, Engineering & Space Safety

🛰 Experience Juice's incredible flyby again, in colours Earlier this week, JUICE made space travel history by successively using the Moon's gravity and then that of the Earth to adjust its trajectory and accelerate towards Venus, the next stage of its long journey towards Jupiter. Watch this historic moment by observing the images taken by the JUICE instrument cameras below. Cleaned and calibrated by the JUICE project team, these images allow us to monitor the condition of the instruments and to appreciate the way JUICE skimmed past both our satellite and planet. Learn more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eYfS8ixx

📣 Space Sustainability: Call for papers!   Interested to demonstrate ESA’s contribution to space sustainability? Submit your paper to the SpaceOps 2025 Conference and join the conversation with the space operations community.   Satellite operations take a major role in addressing the issues posed by space debris. ESA takes special care to minimise the number of space debris released during normal operations, limit the potential for on-orbit break-ups and collisions and elaborate bespoke end-of-life operations for missions of different orbits. It champions the Zero Debris Charter, which gathers the global space community with the aim of shaping the global consensus on space sustainability.   ⏰ Deadline for abstract submission: 31 August 2024   🗣 SpaceOps 2025 - "Toward Space Sustainability" 📅 26-30 May 2025 📍 Montréal, Canada   More information 👉 https://lnkd.in/e-KzUPGn   Canadian Space Agency | Agence spatiale canadienne | CASI/IASC Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute | SpaceOps

🛰 Targeting reentry, or how to properly end a mission     On 8 September, one of the satellites making up ESA's #Cluster mission will re-enter our atmosphere marking the end of this 24-year #spaceweather mission.     A targeted re-entry allows for so much predictability in the re-entry time and location that there is no need for further manoeuvres. An airborne observation experiment will be conducted to collect data on how and when a satellite breaks up, which can be used to make satellite re-entries safer and more sustainable in the future.     “Back in January we tweaked Salsa’s orbit to make sure that on 8 September it experiences its final steep drop from an altitude of roughly 110 km to 80 km,” explains Cluster Operations Manager Bruno Sousa. “This gives us the greatest possible control over where the spacecraft will be captured by the atmosphere and begin to burn up.” Learn more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eQcDDkRZ

📣 Join us in Darmstadt to learn more about Space #MissionOperations On 28 August, the monthly Darmstadt Space Dinner is giving you the opportunity to exchange with Bruno Sousa, ESA Head of the Inner Solar System Missions Operations Unit at ESOC! In his current role, he oversees #SolarOrbiter and #BepiColombo and supports Envision as the Ground Segment Manager. Currently, he also is the Mission Architect for #ESAVigil Mission and provides support to the procurement of operations for Space Rider. Bruno was the Deputy Flight Director for the LEOP of #Juice.    🗣️ How to kill your spacecraft (after you’ve exploited it to its limits…)  📅 Wednesday 28 August, starting at 18:00   📍 Braustüb’l, Darmstadt      The Darmstadt Space Dinners present the perfect informal opportunity to connect with fellow space enthusiasts, professionals and dreamers from Darmstadt and beyond!  Secure your spot by registering here before 26 August at noon:   👉 https://lnkd.in/ekm-Sgxs #ESOC #SpaceIndustry #TechConference 

🛰 World-first Moon-Earth flyby performed by #Juice After completing its flyby above the Moon on Monday night, Juice flew passed yesterday above our planet in a historic feat. The aim of this one-of-a-kind manoeuvre was to reroute Juice’s path through space, using the gravity of first the Moon and then Earth to change the spacecraft’s speed and direction. The flyby of Earth reduced Juice’s speed by 4.8 km/s relative to the Sun, guiding Juice onto a new trajectory towards Venus. Overall, the lunar-Earth flyby deflected Juice by an angle of 100° compared to its pre-flyby path. Next stop for Europe's mission to Jupiter: Venus, in August 2025! “Thanks to very precise navigation by ESA’s Flight Dynamics team, we managed to use only a tiny fraction of the propellant reserved for this flyby. This will add to the margins we keep for a rainy day, or to extend the science mission once we get to Jupiter,” says Ignacio Tanco, Spacecraft Operations Manager for the mission. 📸 Pictures snapped by Juice as it passed just 6807 km above Southeast Asia. Read more about the flyby 👉 https://lnkd.in/dQ53bQPu

🌕 #Juice sends greetings from the Moon before heading towards Earth Last night, the Juice spacecraft approached the Moon as part of its lunar-Earth flyby manoeuvre. As it was doing this one-of-kind routine, its instrument-monitoring cameras took some pictures of our natural satellite. Juice is now on route towards our planet, ready to make use of its gravity to reorient its trajectory and aim towards Venus. Come back tomorrow for pictures of the Earth flyby! Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/enD5DuZK

📹 🔴 Join us live as #Juice flies past the Moon! Tonight, 19 August, Juice will be performing the first step of its nerve-racking lunar-Earth flyby. Almost 24 hours later, the spacecraft will pass by Earth. The manoeuvre will boost the efficiency of Juice’s eight-year journey to Jupiter. At 11:30 PM CET, join the livestream on YouTube or on the @ESA_Juice X channel to follow this first-of-its-kind flyby, discover pictures taken from the spacecraft and hear from our operations experts. 👉 https://lnkd.in/e--rrU-4

☄ Asteroid alert! Oh… it's just #Juice On 6 July, a previously undetected object triggered the automated ESA and NASA warning systems that alert the global #PlanetaryDefence community of a new potentially hazardous asteroid approaching our planet. It turned out that this object, estimated at round 50 m in diameter, was in fact much smaller, harmless and even had a name: Juice. As it approaches our planet to perform the first-ever Moon-Earth flyby, the Jupiter-bound mission reflects a lot of sunlight and appears extremely bright. It is brightness that astronomers use to estimate the size of asteroids. The brighter the object, the bigger it is. Tonight, tune in on ESA TV as Juice will perform the first part of its world first routine 👉 https://lnkd.in/ePuxGT8R 📸 ATLAS Project, University of Hawai’i

Software designed at #ESA/ #ESOC, used across ESA's Member States Cutting-edge software solutions for space mission #groundsystems are being designed and developed by ESA for its #missionoperations, but they also enable European industry. Did you know? Software packages are available to license under European Community License at zero cost, which helps industry minimise the development time and costs associated with preparing and running a space mission ground segment. "ESA provides its cutting-edge ground software applications free of charge to European industry enabling its competitiveness” says Daniel Fischer, Head of Ground Segment Systems & Cybersecurity Engineering Section at #ESOC. Industrial partners are executing the software development for ESA, which helps them acquire new expertise that ensure their competitive edge. Such software systems include, among others: 👉Monitoring & Control Systems 👉Mission-Planning Systems 👉Operational simulation framework 👉Flight dynamics framework 👉Data Management and processing systems 👉Automation Systems 👉Multi-Mission Environment 👉Machine Learning Operations framework (to support AI based solutions) 👉Space mission ground segment development tooling Learn more 👉 https://lnkd.in/dwrziq5G

Hessian delegation visits #ESOC On Tuesday, we were pleased to welcome the Hessian Digital Minister Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus. This gave us the opportunity to highlight our missions, our work on AI applications and cyber resilience. It was rewarding to see our commitment to innovation resonate with our visitors. "Hesse is a globally recognised location for linking digitalisation and satellite communication and space technology. We must continue to utilise and expand this locational advantage in order to strengthen Hessen and Europe", said the Minister. "We are delighted about the continued interest of the Hessian Digital Minister in ESA's work here in Darmstadt. We speak a common language when it comes to topics such as artificial intelligence, big data, digital twins and augmented reality", said, Dr Rolf Densing, ESOC Centre Director. 📷 ESA/J. Mai