Today on the ESA TV Service Schedule 18 Jan 2001

Today’s transmission of the ESA TV Service includes:

18-Jan-01 14:00 – 14:30 GMT

Cluster – A Beautiful Moment

The film of the remake of the mission

Background information on the transmission:

After their launch in last summer, the rebuilt Cluster mission is now flying in its final orbit around the Earth in tetrahedral formation, and have practically completed their scientific commissioning phase.

The scientific instruments onboard the spacecraft have gradually been brought to life and undergone a series of health, calibration and interference checks.

By making simultaneous measurements in a tetrahedral formation, the Cluster quartet will be able to make the most detailed three-dimensional study yet of the Sun-Earth connection and of the changes and processes taking place in near-Earth space.

For the first time ever in space history, four identical spacecraft are operated simultaneously in orbit, opening new horizons for future multi-spacecraft missions.

The Cluster project involves more than 70 laboratories and over 250 scientists from many countries, including Europe, the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India, Israel, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic.

In time before the presentation of first data to the media, the ESA TV Service transmits “Cluster – A Beautiful Moment”, a 10-minute edited video presentation of the rebuild of the Cluster mission after it was lost on the fatal, first launch of Ariane 5, on 4 June 1996.

More background information can be found on http://sci.esa.int/cluster.

Transmission details:Eutelsat W1 at 10 degrees East

Transponder B5, dig ch 1, horizontal

F=11.13475 MHz, SR=5.632 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

For further information, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For other enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail chabfast@estec.esa.nl.