ESA TV Service transmission in week 5 May 2003

The ESA TV transmissions of week 5 May 2003 will cover the Solar Transit of Mercury and the Mars Express Mission.

On 7 May, planet Mercury will slip across the Sun in a rare event, known as a transit. There are only about 12 celestial alignments like this every century. The SOHO observatory will record the transit and a sequence of images will be available shortly afterwards, as a broadcast quality Quicktime file for download from an ftp-site (because of technical reasons, the images cannot be transmitted via satellite).

On 6 May – Mars-the Rusty Planet – the third story in the series of five programmes on the Mars Express mission and Martian exploration will be transmitted, with replays on the day itself and on 10 May.

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.