ESA TV Service transmissions in week 2-7 February 2003

ESA TV Service transmissions in week 2-7 February 2003 focuses on the landing of Space Shuttle Mission STS-107, on Ariane 4, and on the recovery of the Artemis mission.

The ESA TV Service will retransmit the landing of Space Shuttle Columbia scheduled for 2 February 2003 at 14:16 GMT.

“The story of Ariane 4” marks the last launch of an Ariane 4 launcher planned for 12 February 2003. After more than 100 successful launches, an era will come to an end as the more powerful and economical Ariane 5 will completely take over; today’s transmission provides background footage for broadcasters wishing to cover this event. Transmissions of “The story of Ariane 4” are on 4 and 8 February.

“The recovery of Artemis” started on 12 July 2001, when ESA’s newest telecommunications satellite was left stranded in a wrong orbit following a malfunction of its launcher. Thanks to its ion propulsion engine and solar power, Artemis was gradually pushed towards its nominal orbital altitude of 36000 km above the equator which it reached on 31 January 2003. Artemis will soon enter operations, for example transmitting images of Envisat in real time to data processing facilities. Transmissions are on 7 and 8 February.

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.