ESA TV coverage of Deep Impact mission

On 4 July 2005, NASA’s Deep Impact mission will explore comet Tempel-1 by creating a crater with a 300kg impactor, allowing a look deep inside the comet. Dramatic images of the impactor?s final approach and possibly the crater it made, will be sent to Earth in near-realtime.

A global observation campaign has been organised to observe and analyse all aspects of the matter ejected from the comet’s interior. This campaign has also a large European participation.

ESA will use the Rosetta comet chaser and the XMM/Newton Observatory to observe the event for several days. Also the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope will be directed towards the comet. Rosetta and HST observations will be made public on 4 July.

The European Southern Observatory ESO will use the seven telescopes it operates at La Silla and Parañal in Chile, amongst them the world’s currently most powerful and high-resolving instruments in the infrared and visible wavelength ranges. The colour images will be available in the early monring hours of 5 July.

The ESA TV Service will provide extensive coverage of the Deep Impact mission, including live coverage of the event on 4 July.

Today, ESA TV is rebroadcasting the NASA-TV video file with Deep Impact footage, plus a NASA pre-event press briefing, as follows:

16:00-16:30 GMT NASA Video File (Deep Impact B-roll)

17:00-18:00 GMT NASA Deep Impact News Conference

Downlink parameters:

Eutelsat W2 – 16 degrees east (please note that this is not W1)

Transponder B5 lower, channel 4, horizontal, F=11142 MHz, SR=5.632 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

On 14 June, an ESA TV Exchange will outline in more detail the European participation in the Deep Impact mission.

For further information and a daily update of the transmission schedule, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For all enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail claus.habfast@esa.int.