ESA Eager For Future Missions

Ariane 5’s readiness for the launch of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle is now one step further ahead, thanks to the successful re-ignition of the upper stage engine during its most recent mission. The launch of ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which carries supplies to the International Space Station, will require multiple firings of the Ariane 5 ES upper stage engine. Hundreds of re-ignition tests under various thermal conditions have been completed at the DLR Test Center to qualify the Aestus engine for multiple re-ignitions during the mission.





Additionally, during the October 17th through 18th 2007 meeting in Paris, the ESA’s Space Science Advisory Committee selected the new candidates for possible future scientific missions. Lists of 50 proposals were submitted. The candidates for the Solar System phase include: Laplace, the study of the Jovian System (Jupiter and its moons), in collaboration with the Japanese Space and Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA; Tandem, a new mission to Saturn, Titan and Enceladus, in collaboration with NASA; Cross-Scale, using 12 spacecraft, all measuring plasma (the gas charged particles surrounding Earth) simultaneously, in collaboration with JAXA; and Marco Polo, a journey to the near-earth object Marco Polo as a sample-return mission, in collaboration with JAXA. There are also four astronomy missions that have been approved—Paris, France