Missions & Campaigns Highlights

This latest ATV – named after German-born physicist Albert Einstein – was lowered by an overhead crane onto its Ariane 5 inside the 90-meter-tall Final Assembly Building in French Guiana.

The payload fairing – which will complete the launcher build up – will be mounted closer to the launch date, allowing for loading of late cargo for the ATV’s International Space Station servicing mission. This second Ariane 5 flight of 2013 is scheduled for a June 5 liftoff.

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is set to fly to the International Space Station in May 2013.

He will spend six months on the International Space Station on Expedition 36/37 under an agreement with Italy’s ASI space agency and NASA.

Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut is an international educational challenge focusing on fitness and nutrition as we encourage students to "train like an astronaut."

Mission X is focused on fitness and nutrition because we know that a healthy body is necessary to be a 'Fit Explorer!' The World Health Organization has designated childhood obesity as one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century - and diet, physical activity, and health are the best answers to this largely preventable problem. Astronauts know the vital importance of physical training for mission success, and we are excited for kids all over the world to learn from them - for life success.

Teams of elementary students will learn principles of healthy eating and exercise, compete for points by finishing training modules, and get excited about the world's future in space and the educational possibilities for their own future. Students will practice scientific reasoning and teamwork while participating in hands-on training missions targeting strength, endurance, coordination, balance, spatial awareness, and more.

Train Like an Astronaut mission activities include: Base Station Walkback; Crew Strength Training; Do a Spacewalk; Mission: CONTROL!; Jump for the Moon; Explore and Discover; Agility Astro-Course; Speed of Light; Building an Astronaut Core; Crew Assembly; Let’s Climb a Martian Mountain; Planet you GO, Gravity you Find; Get on Your Space Cycle; and Space Roll and Roll. Educational science modules include: Living Bones, Strong Bones; Hydration Station; Energy of an Astronaut; and Reduced Gravity, Low Fat.

ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers and crewmates Oleg Kononeko and Don Pettit docked on 23 Dec 2011 with the International Space Station in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft. They will work aboard the Station now for five months and return to Earth in May.

Orlan and airlock operations exercise with Samantha.Cristoforetti and Alexander Gerst
Video filming credits: GCTC, Star City Russia

Videos and highlights on ESA Parabolic Flight Campaigns.

Andre Kuipers, Oleg Kononenko and Don Pettit started their Post Flight Tour in ESA-ESTEC, the technology and research centre of the European Space Agency in Noordwijk , The Netherlands on the 18th of September 2012. This 20 minutes video provides a short summary of the achievements of their six months in space and it is commented by the crew live during the Tour inauguration in ESTEC. The Mission logo and patches, the launch, the science on-board are presented together with other activities like recreation, education, technology and maintenance and, of course, with the spectacular and successful landing that took place on July 1st, 2012 in the Kazakh steppe.

On June 11, NASA sent the 16th aquanaut crew to live for two weeks in Aquarius, the world's only undersea laboratory. NASA leases the laboratory each year from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to conduct research and simulate mission activities in the water's low gravity.

NEEMO missions are performed at Aquarius because the isolation, constrained habitat and crew quarters, harsh environment, and reduced gravity challenge aquanauts to perform mission operations despite extremely formidable conditions. Much like space, the undersea world is a hostile, alien place for humans to live. NEEMO crew members experience some of the same challenges there that they would on a distant asteroid, planet or moon.

The NEEMO 16 objectives focus on asteroid mission scenarios, but the operational and technical concepts that the team is investigating are common to any long-duration human exploration mission:

• What techniques for anchoring and performing mission operations will be most effective for exploration of an asteroid?
• What robotic systems will best optimize crew activities?
• How will Earth-bound mission control centers communicate with the crew?
• How many crew members are needed to explore a deep space destination such as an asteroid? Would Apollo’s three-person crews be sufficient, or should an extra person or two be added?
• How should mission activities be distributed among crew members up upon reaching the asteroid?
• What effects will communications time delays have on mission operations and behavioral health?

Testing these mission concepts in the weightless underwater environment helps NASA understand the challenges of sending humans to explore an asteroid. Long-duration NEEMO missions provide astronauts with a realistic approximation of situations they will likely encounter on missions in deep space and provide an understanding of how to carry out daily operations in a simulated planetary environment.

ESA’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle, scheduled for launch on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 23 March, is planned to dock with the International Space Station five days later.

ATV-3 will automatically dock with the Station’s Russian Zvezda module during the night of 28–29 March. The precise time will be known after launch, which is set for 04:31 GMT (05:31 CET) on Friday, 23 March. The flight of ATV-3 is part of the internationally coordinated servicing effort to support the International Space Station.

During his MagISStra mission, Paolo Nespoli will live and work on the International Space Station (ISS) with Kondratyev and Coleman as members of Expeditions 26 and 27.

The Latin-flavoured name combines the word magistra, the female teacher, with the acronym of the International Space Station, continuing ESA’s tradition of having ISS within the mission name.

MagISStra also echoes the humanistic value of the mission, because it reflects the special link with education. It is one of the three dimensions of the flight, together with science and technology.

The mission logo features a human being, who can be seen as the Paolo himself, projected from the ISS. The value of the mission to Earth is symbolised by three icons between the arms: the plant denoting scientific research, the gears for technology, and the book as knowledge.

The six stars represent the six crewmembers living on the Station during the mission and the six months that Paolo will stay in space, as well as the idea of Europe.

Roberto’s mission is named DAMA in reference to the search for the mysterious dark matter that will be conducted by the 6.9-tonne fundamental physics payload, the AMS-02 Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, probably the most ambitious science payload ever launched to the Station. 
AMS-02 will help scientists to understand better the fundamental issues on the origin and structure of the Universe by observing antimatter and ‘dark’ matter.
It was launched on Space Shuttle mission STS-134. Crew members are Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H. Johnson and Mission Specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori.

Europe’s second ATV

Johannes Kepler is the first operational ATV, following the highly successful Jules Verne qualification flight in 2008. With a total mass of over 20 tonnes, it is the heaviest payload ever launched by Europe.

ATV is a highly sophisticated spacecraft, combining an autonomous free-flying platform, a manoeuvrable space vehicle and – when docked – a space station module. 

To achieve an automated docking under the very tight safety constraints imposed by human spaceflight rules, ATV carries high-precision navigation systems, highly redundant flight software and a fully autonomous collision-avoidance system with its own independent power supplies, control and thrusters.

About 10 m high with a diameter of 4.5 m, ATV includes a 45-cubic m pressurised module and a Russian docking system, similar to those used on the Soyuz manned ferries and the Progress resupply ships.

With its solar wings deployed, ATV spans 22 m. Almost three times larger than Russia’s Progress, it can also deliver about three times the cargo load.

ESA’s latest Automated Transfer Vehicle is ready for launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday, 15 February at 22:08 GMT from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The unmanned spaceship will deliver essential supplies and reboost the Station during its mission lasting three and half months.

On 27 May 2009, ESA astronaut Frank De Winne launched with the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft, to embark on the six-month OasISS mission to the ISS.

Not only De Winne is a member of the first six-person ISS Expedition crew, he will also be the first European to become the commander of the International Space Station (ISS).

For De Winne, who is a member of the European Astronaut Corps, this will be his second mission to the Station on behalf of ESA, following on from the 12-day Odissea mission in 2002.

The mission marks many important milestones for ESA, European astronauts, European science and European control centres, as well as holding a great deal of significance for ESA in cooperation with its international partners.

Not only are these milestones of great importance in fulfilling the goals of the mission, they also hold great significance by building on current knowledge and experience for future exploration missions.

Node 3 and Cupola were launched on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-130. Shuttle flight STS-130 was launched on Monday 8 February at 10:14 CET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre (KSC). It delivered Node 3 (named “Tranquility” by NASA), one of the three ISS interconnecting modules that houses the life support equipment necessary for a permanent crew of six. This mission also carried the European-built Cupola observation module, a seven window dome-shaped structure from where the Space Station's robotic arm can be be operated and the crew has a panoramic view of space.

The Alisse' mission is ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang's second spaceflight. The mission gets underway with the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The launch of Discovery on Shuttle flight STS-128 is scheduled for 25 August 2009.

A principal focus of Fuglesang’s mission is his spacewalk activities as a Mission Specialist for STS-128. Fuglesang also undertakes experiment, educational and public relations activities as part of the Alisse' Mission.