number 145 | February 2011 bulletin → space for europe European Space Agency The European Space Agency was formed out of, and took over the rights and The ESA headquarters are in Paris. obligations of, the two earlier European space organisations – the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) and the European Launcher Development The major establishments of ESA are: Organisation (ELDO). The Member States are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands. Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Canada is a Cooperating State. ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany. In the words of its Convention: the purpose of the Agency shall be to provide for ESRIN, Frascati, Italy. and to promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European States in space research and technology and their space applications, with a view ESAC, Madrid, Spain. to their being used for scientific purposes and for operational space applications systems: Chairman of the Council: D. Williams → by elaborating and implementing a long-term European space policy, by Director General: J.-J. Dordain recommending space objectives to the Member States, and by concerting the policies of the Member States with respect to other national and international organisations and institutions; → by elaborating and implementing activities and programmes in the space field; → by coordinating the European space programme and national programmes, and by integrating the latter progressively and as completely as possible into the European space programme, in particular as regards the development of applications satellites; → by elaborating and implementing the industrial policy appropriate to its programme and by recommending a coherent industrial policy to the Member States. The Agency is directed by a Council composed of representatives of the Member States. The Director General is the chief executive of the Agency and its legal representative. ← Schiaparelli is a large impact basin about 460 km across, located in the eastern Terra Meridiani region of Mars. The Mars Express image shows just a small part of the basin’s northwestern rim cutting diagonally across the image and a smaller crater, 42 km in diameter, embedded in its rim (ESA/DLR/FU Berlin) → contents 12 number 145 | February 2011 2 34 The ESA Bulletin is an ESA Communications production. Published by: ESA Communication Department ESTEC, PO Box 299 2200 AG Noordwijk The Netherlands Tel: +31 71 565 3408 Email: [email protected] Editor 46 64 70 Carl Walker Designer I SEE EARTH! IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL! Emiliana Colucci The first human in space: Yuri Gagarin Organisation Carl Walker → 2 www.esa.int/credits SETTING sail for the ISS ATV Johannes Kepler readies for flight The ESA Bulletin is published by the Nico Dettmann and Charlotte Beskow → 12 European Space Agency. Individual articles may be reprinted provided the credit line reads ‘Reprinted from 2010: A SPACE ODYSSEY CONTINUES ESA Bulletin’, plus date of issue. Ten of the most fascinating images taken of space last year → 29 Reprinted signed articles must bear the authors’ names. WELL CONNECTED The SpaceWire on-board data-handling network ESA and the ESA logo are trademarks Steve Parkes et al → 34 of the European Space Agency. Images copyright ESA unless stated THE LEGENDARY CLUSTER QUARTET otherwise. Permission to reproduce or distribute material identified as Celebrating ten years flying in formation copyright of a third party must be Matt Taylor et al → 46 obtained from the copyright owner concerned. First scientific results FROm Planck → 58 2011: THE YEAR OF SOYUZ AND VEGA → 60 Copyright © 2011 NEWS IN BRIEF → 64 European Space Agency ISSN 0376-4265 | e-ISSN 1608-4713 PROGRAMMES IN PROGRESS → 70 “I hope that this famous communication portrait of Yuri Gagarin will witness again many more passages of astronauts and cosmonauts on board the spaceships of the future, including, hopefully, one that will take humans towards Mars.” – Jean-François Clervoy 2 www.esa.int gagarin → → “I SEE EARTH! IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL!” The first human in space: Yuri Gagarin Carl Walker Directorate of Legal Affairs and External Relations, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands “The world’s first spaceship, Vostok, with a man His feat was amazing at the time. NASA rushed to get on board, was launched into orbit from the Soviet an astronaut into space and, in May 1961, Alan Shepard Union on 12 April 1961. The pilot space-navigator became the first US astronaut, albeit making a suborbital of the satellite-spaceship Vostok is a citizen of the ballistic flight. It wasn’t until the next year that a US USSR, Flight Major Yuri Gagarin.” astronaut flew in orbit, when John Glenn circled Earth aboard Mercury Friendship 7 in February 1962. To the world of 1961, this was an electrifying announcement, made while Gagarin was still in space. Two days after the return of Vostok 1, Gagarin was back in The Americans were stunned, but the congratulations Moscow, where he appeared on the balcony of the Kremlin they sent to Moscow were genuine. This historic with Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Forty-eight hours earlier, 108-minute flight, orbiting once around Earth, made he was unknown; now he was arguably the most famous Gagarin the first human in space, and an international man on Earth. He embarked on a worldwide tour during hero. He was only 27 years old. which cheering crowds greeted him wherever he went. European Space Agency | Bulletin 145 | February 2011 3 ↓ After the flight, Yuri Gagarin at the Kremlin with Soviet communication leaders (Life) ↗ Gagarin signs an autograph in Budapest, Hungary (B. Sándor) → Gagarin during a tour of Moscow (old.moskva.com) ← Gagarin visited European countries including UK, here with Prime Minister Harold McMillan in London (Life) Gagarin’s international visits were extraordinary because Ideological differences were momentarily forgotten as this they came at the height of the Cold War. Here was someone man was hailed a hero around the globe. who could travel not only between Earth and space, but also between the open and closed worlds of the east and west. Gagarin never flew in space again. After touring, he returned home to Star City to continue his work in the Russian space programme. He was in training for an early flight of the new Soyuz spacecraft in 1967, but was grounded ↓ Gagarin later famously met US astronauts Ed White and by senior space managers who did not want to risk the life James McDivitt at the Paris International Air Show in of a Hero of the Soviet Union in another hazardous mission. 1965. Also shown are US Vice President Hubert Humphrey It is even more of a tragedy then that Gagarin should lose his (seated) and French Premier Georges Pompidou (NASA) life during a routine training flight on 27 March 1968, when his plane crashed and he and his instructor were killed. His ashes were placed in the Kremlin Wall and a lunar crater and asteroid 1772 Gagarin are named in his honour. What is Gagarin’s legacy? Space is an inspirational subject and human spaceflight in particular has motivated many young people to follow careers in science and engineering. Space now affects our everyday lives and makes an important contribution to the economies of the world. This is the legacy of the early days of spaceflight, but it is often also associated with Yuri Gagarin and the astronauts who followed him. Yes, it is true that space now touches many aspects of our daily lives – from the vital role it plays in monitoring our 4 www.esa.int gagarin → planet and protecting the environment, to the technical the first to photograph its far side in October the same advances that space exploration has brought to materials year. In February 1961, Venera-1, the first truly planetary science, computing, engineering, communications, probe, was launched toward Venus – an important biomedicine and many other fields. milestone in spacecraft design. Satellites are now able to show us our home planet in extraordinary detail and tell us about the way that we are changing it on local and global scales. Spaceprobes have made ↓ A plaque in memory of Yuri Gagarin, presented to General landings on distant planets, moons and asteroids and are even Kuznetsov, commander of the Star City training centre, now journeying to the very edge of our Solar System. Orbiting by Dr George M. Low, acting Administrator of NASA, in a astronomical telescopes have given Earth-based scientists ceremony in Moscow in 1971 (NASA) insights into the creation of life and of the Universe itself. But the fact is the Space Age was already well under way in 1961. Scientists and engineers were already making discoveries and inventing new technologies for spaceflight. By the time of Gagarin’s flight, the Soviet Union and the USA had made over 100 launch attempts, and both had succeeded in putting satellites in orbit and sending probes out into interplanetary space. Since the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik in October 1957, the Soviet Union had notched up a set of ‘firsts’. They placed the first living creature, the dog Laika, into space in November 1957 and sent Luna 1 to pass close to the Moon in January 1959. Luna 2 would be the first probe to impact the Moon in September 1959 and Luna 3 European Space Agency | Bulletin 145 | February 2011 5 communication → The image of Gagarin lives on in most current space activities: from left, the crew of STS-76 and Soyuz TM-23 on the Mir space station in 1996; Alexander Kaleri, Mike Foale and André Kuipers on the ISS in 2004, and the Mars500 crew in 2010 On the American side, progress was equally impressive. The Soviet authorities chose their first man well.