France in Space # 235

FRANCE IN SPACE, NUMBER 235 04/14/2003

CNES WASHINGTON

OFFICE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

EMBASSY OF FRANCE

Tel : (202) 944 65 79 / Fax : (202) 944 61 38

E-mail:France-In-Space@ambafrance-us.org

Web : http://www.france-science.org/france-in-space

** 1: ARIANE 5 BACK ON TRACK

On April 10th, an Ariane-5 launcher headed for space from Kourou, in French
Guiana. Flight 160 was right on time and successfully placed its two
payloads into orbit. This launch is not the first time that ISRO (Indian
Space Research Organization) and PanAmSat have taken advantage of the
excellent location and facilities offered by Europe’s spaceport. ISRO
launched its first satellite from here in 1981 and a PanAmSat satellite was
one of the two payloads successfully placed into orbit by Ariane-4’s maiden
flight in June 1988. The next Ariane-5 launch is scheduled for early June,
and is to carry the Optus C1 satellite for Australia’s Optus and BSAT-2c for
Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT) of Japan. During this
flawless launch broadcast, Dr. KASTURIRANGAN, Chairman of ISRO and Jean-Yves
LE GALL, Chairman of Arianespace, announced that Ariane 5 will launch two
new Indian satellites INSAT 4A and 4B.
[Arianespace Press Release 04/10/2003]

** 2: NODE 2 GETS READY

Node 2 will be formally delivered to the European Space Agency (ESA) by the
ASI, the Italian Space Agency in mid-May, 2003. Last week the first activity
related to that delivery, the Acceptance Review, was successfully conducted
at the Alenia Spazio facility in Turin, with the participation of ESA, ASI
and NASA. The nodes are elements interconnecting laboratory and habitation
modules of the International Space Station. When completed, the Station will
have three nodes. Node 1, called Unity, has already been developed and
manufactured by US industry under a NASA contract and was launched in
December 1998. Nodes 2 and 3 are being made in Europe for NASA under a
barter agreement using European know-how and technology. According to this
agreement, ESA will provide two nodes, additional high-technology laboratory
equipment and services to NASA. In return the US Space Shuttle will ferry
the European Columbus Laboratory module to the Space Station on a launch
currently planned for October 2004.
[ESA Press Release 04/07/2003]

** 3: FRENCH-JAPANESE SATELLITE LINK

Another successful inter-satellite link achieved with Artemis! After a world
premiere laser link with Spot 4 in November 2001 and a relay with Envisat
last month, Artemis has transmitted data from the Japanese earth observation
satellite Adeos II. In this framework, ESA and NASDA performed a series of
tests from March 27th to the 29th to demonstrate the system’s performance
and the operational links between the Adeos II team in Tsukuba, Japan, and
the Artemis Mission Control Facility in Redu, Belgium. Prior to these tests
ESA and NASDA had performed a series of experiments independently: NASDA has
confirmed the good performance of data relay links between Adeos II and the
Japanese Data Relay satellite DRTS, and ESA had demonstrated the data relay
link between Artemis and Envisat.
[ESA Press Release 04/07/2003]

** 4: IN BRIEF

SMART-1, a prototype for future space missions should leave the Earth in
August. It is a small, low-cost mission that emphasises miniaturisation. It
carries ten experiments that will test a host of technological innovations
in the context of the first European scientific mission to the Moon. [ESA
Press Release 03/19/2003, La Tribune 04/07/2003] Finmeccanica and Carlyle
have agreed to make a joint offer to take over FiatAvio, the aerospace
company of the Fiat Group, which mainly builds plane and rocket engine. [La
Tribune 04/08/2003] The first release of the catalog listing all the cosmic
sources of emitting X-ray detected by ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite is now
accessible online at http://xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk/ [CNES, Université
Louis Pasteur, CNRS, CEA 04/07/2003]

** PLEASE NOTE

The publication of France-in-Space will be suspended for two weeks until May
5th, 2003.

[From Arianespace Press Release, CEA Press Release, CNES Press Release,
CNRS, Press Release, ESA Press Release, La Tribune, Université Louis
Pasteur]

France In Space is a weekly synthesis of French space activities based on
French press. Its content does not reflect an official position of the
French Government or CNES. It is provided by the CNES office and the Office
of Science and Technology of the French Embassy in Washington D.C
Editors: Vincent Sabathier, Thibaut Girard – Translator: World Traduction –
Corrector: Janick Bielskis-Jaeger

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