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ESA Operations
@esaoperations
From Earth orbit to deep space: sharing the excitement of realtime mission #operations at the European Space Agency
#WhereMissionsComeAlive 
#SpaceSafety
#SpaceSafetyESA Operations’s Tweets
RECEIPT OF SIGNAL FROM SURFACE European Space Agency receiving signals from on surface of comet #67P/CG #cometlanding
India has its sights set on the Moon 🇮🇳 🌔
's #Chandrayaan3 spacecraft is due to launch tomorrow, 14 July, at 11:05 CEST.
The mission aims to achieve #India’s first soft landing on another celestial body - and we'll be there to help!
ℹ️👉esa.int/Enabling_Suppo
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Today, #CometZTF makes its Earth close approach!
Billions of years old, not seen since Neanderthals roamed, the green comet has grown an apparent third tail & unexpectedly (intriguingly) failed to wow observed in x-ray light.
More🧵👇☄️👉esa.int/Space_Safety/P
©️Oscar Martín
Replying to
🚨 Shocking RIME update 🚨
The RIME antenna on is free!!!
This Juice Monitoring Camera GIF shows the moments after the Flight Control Team at ESA #MissionControl fired the remaining 'actuator' on the jammed bracket.
More info: esa.int/Science_Explor
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Signal acquired! 📡〰️〰️〰️🛰️📶
We hear you loud and clear #Chandrayaan3! 🇮🇳
Data are now flowing down from orbit to our Kourou station in French Guiana.
From there, they are forwarded to in India via our ESOC #MissionControl centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
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Congratulations on the launch of the #Chandrayaan3 #Moon mission! 🥳🇮🇳🚀🌖
Our ESA ground station in Kourou will begin tracking the spacecraft as it rises above the horizon in French Guiana tomorrow morning (CEST).
Speak to you soon! 😉
#FirstLight! Today, flight team switched on camera to acquire 1st image from deep interplanetary space
It's easy to forget we're orbiting through space on a giant marble, in a mostly empty Solar System. Eclipses are a beautiful reminder of this, as the Sun, Earth and Moon align to block sunlight and cast fleeting shadows.
Join us on 26 May for #LunarEclipse2021 on #ESAWebTV
📸#MarsExpress has done it again.
This stunning mosaic image of the the 82-km wide Korolev crater on the Red Planet was pieced together from 5 observations, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on our beloved MarsExpress spacecraft🛰️🔴
Find out more: esa.int/Our_Activities
#AsteroidImpact confirmed!!!🛰️💥🪨
Congratulations, ! #DARTMission is no more, but we excitedly await the results.
Next, ESA's #HeraMission flies out to study DART's impact.
#PlanetaryDefense 🌍
#AvengeTheDinosaurs🦕
Huge congratulations to , , and *cough* ourselves and , on the spectacular launch of the #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope🚀🛰️🥳🎊🎉
We look forward to the mission's future, the most sensitive telescope ever launched, as it begins to reveal our past
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Congratulations teams for a superb #Mars landing! You make really hard stuff look easy! Looking forward to helping relay your data - stay in touch, willya?! #ToMarsAndBack #ExploreFarther #CountdownToMars
Space rock skims Earth’s atmosphere, observed by the #globalmeteornetwork☄️
In the early hours of 22 Sept over N. Germany & the Netherlands, a meteoroid got down to 91 km in altitude - far below orbiting satellites - before it ‘bounced’ back into space
➡️esa.int/ESA_Multimedia
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For the first time ever, ESA has performed a 'collision avoidance manoeuvre' to protect one of its satellites from colliding with a 'mega constellation'
#SpaceTraffic
Light on at Jupiter! Anyone home? This bright impact flash was spotted yesterday on the giant planet by astronomer José Luis Pereira.
Not a lot of info on the impacting object yet but its likely to be large and/or fast!
Thanks Jupiter for taking the hit☄️
#PlanetaryDefence
LOSS OF SIGNAL #LOS European Space Agency confirms end of contact w/ . Operations complete at 720mn km from Earth #CometLanding
Wow. Asteroid 1998 OR2 tumbling through space seen by the Arecibo observatory.
They confirm the space rock is ~ 2 km in diameter and rotates once every 4.1 hours.
1998 OR2 will safely make a #closeapproach of Earth on 29 April, at its closest being 16 x further than the Moon🌙
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~1-m space object - temporary designation #C8FF042 - strikes Earth over Canada, creating stunning #fireball☄️
For only the 6th time in history, this impact was predicted.
Find out more about predicting #asteroid impacts from the last time this happened 👉esa.int/Space_Safety/P
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A <1m object has struck
in the skies above Niagara Falls, becoming a safe #fireball. For just the 6th time, global #asteroid warning systems saw it pre impact, alerting #PlanetaryDefence experts where & when. 'Only' 6x, but this capability is rapidly improving
#AsteroidImpact
twitter.com/Richard_M_F/st…
in the skies above Niagara Falls, becoming a safe #fireball. For just the 6th time, global #asteroid warning systems saw it pre impact, alerting #PlanetaryDefence experts where & when. 'Only' 6x, but this capability is rapidly improving
#AsteroidImpact twitter.com/Richard_M_F/st…Tonight, intentionally crashes their #DART spacecraft into a 160m asteroid, to nudge its orbit in a world-first test of #AsteroidDeflection🛰️↩️🪨
And yes, the live feed will be streaming down to watch on #NASATV & #ESAWebTV from midnight CEST!🔴📹👉esa.int/ESA_Multimedia
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Replying to
The Flight Control Team then commanded the release of the final remaining part of the RIME antenna boom, which extends in the opposite direction.
Confirmation of a successful deployment arrived shortly after.
The RIME antenna is now fully released!
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#BepiColombo
On #Mars!!! Looking forward to amazing science, new adventures and exploring farther! #CountdownToMars
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Hello, world. My first look at my forever home. #CountdownToMars
A mysteriously long, thin cloud has again appeared over the 20-km high Arsia Mons volcano on Mars, revealed in images captured by the on #MarsExpress
➡️esa.int/ESA_Multimedia
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Today's the day! space telescope - most sensitive ever launched - will separate from its launcher abt 27 mins after liftoff, set for 13:20 CET, from which point we'll use a ground station in #Kenya to catch signals from the mission esa.int/Enabling_Suppo
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Last night, 's #DARTMission intentionally smashed into an #asteroid in the world's first test of #AsteroidDeflection. No-one knew exactly what to expect - this has never been done before.
Our results of this historic <30 min period in a few seconds👉esa.int/ESA_Multimedia
Chang-e5 has landed on the Moon!
Congratulations to the China National Space Administration 🥳
More info👉 bbc.com/news/science-e
📸Direct from the Moon #Change5
©️ China National Space Administration cnsa.gov.cn/n6758823/n6758
Mach 1!
Solar Orbiter, inside the Atlas V rocket, is now travelling faster than the speed of sound
#SuperSonicOrbiter🔊
#WeAreAllSolarOrbiters☀️
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#Sentinel6 we hear you!
The North Pole Satellite Station in Alaska has caught the spacecraft's first signals from space and is locked on to the new mission. Transmission coming into #ESOC #missioncontrol loud and clear.
#SignalAquired📶
#AOS
#AcqusitionOfSignal
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#SolarOrbiter - we hear you!
We have acquisition of signal. Our New Norica tracking station has locked on to #SolarOrbiter. Transmission coming in loud and clear.
#AOS✅
#LoudAndClear〰️
#Estrack📡
The first view of #Mars from 's #InSight lander!
The small specks are thought to be grains of debris on the camera's cover, which will be removed soon.
So far - not many signs of rocks, a great sign for the science experiments to come!
#MarsLanding
FIRST SIGNAL RECEIVED📶 from #BepiColombo🛰️, detected by 's antenna at #NewNorcia, Australia📡.
With these first words📣, engineers at #ESOC🕹 can monitor the status & execution of the autonomous activities onboard the spacecraft
#MarsExpress signal acquired! The ESA Deep Space Antenna #Cebreros reports a clear signal from 's veteran Mars mission. #ExoMars
The first command has been sent to #Sentinel6 - we have two-way communication!
#ItsASpaceConversation
Juice’s ice-penetrating RIME antenna has not yet deployed as planned.
During the first week of commissioning, an issue arose with the 16m Radar for Icy Moons Exploration, preventing its release from the mounting bracket 📡👉esa.int/Science_Explor
🔖 🧵for continued updates👇
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This evening, a giant kilometre-wide #asteroid will pass – safely – by Earth🌍🪨
⏰Time of #closeapproach: 21:49 UTC (22:49 CET)
📏~2 million km – five times the distance of the Moon.
🌬️20 km/s
Happy Birthday #MarsExpress!
17 years ago today Europe's first mission to Mars left Earth. The nominal plan was for the spacecraft to spend one year orbiting the Red Planet, but engineers at #MissionControl managed to keep it flying an extra 16 years ... here's to the next!🥳
We have #AcquisitionOfSignal from #ESAJuice!
The spacecraft has said its first words from its new home in space, captured by our New Norcia ground station in Western Australia.
, we hear you loud and clear.
#AoS
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Ping! 
#ESAJuice to @esaoperations
#ESAJuice to @esaoperations
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BREAKING NEWS!
Well, deployment news ;) - boom deployments are complete!
With confirmation of the successful release of #ESAJuice's 4th Langmuir probe, here captured by one of the 🛰️'s onboard monitoring cameras, we declare Juice in full flight configuration 🏁🥳
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Today's partial solar eclipse, as seen from Darmstadt, Germany, home to #missioncontrol.
📷Taken by , using a camera and filter that let in just 1/100000 of the Sun's light
#SolarEclipse
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Last month, we nearly lost .
Without warning, a 'reaction wheel' stopped spinning, causing a ripple effect that meant the whole satellite began to rotate.
As Integral turned from the Sun, we had just 3 hrs of battery to save the mission🔋❌👉esa.int/Enabling_Suppo
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Wow. Asteroid 1998 OR2 tumbling through space seen by the Arecibo observatory.
They confirm the space rock is ~ 2 km in diameter and rotates once every 4.1 hours.
1998 OR2 will safely make a #closeapproach of Earth on 29 April, at its closest being 16 x further than the Moon
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Spacecraft Separation!🚀--->🛰️
#SolarOrbiter has separated from the rocket. It is now flying on its own
#WeAreAllSolarOrbiters
A 1-meter meteoroid (small #asteroid) has been detected and is expected to *safely* strike Earth's atmosphere over northern France between 3:50-4:03 CET.
In the area? Look out for a #ShootingStar!☄️
#Fireball
#Sar2667
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Incoming! Almost perfectly in time for the 10 year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor: The first spotted #imminentImpactor of 2023 over northern France (near Rouen):
When you catch signals from a spacecraft at an alien planet, there's a lot of happy activity! #ExoMars
How not to lose #Webb 📡🛰️
Ground stations on Earth use ultra-precise navigation techniques to tell us how far away a spacecraft is, how fast it is travelling and in what direction ...
It wasn't just that had a #CloseApproach last night - #Sentinel1B had a high risk #SpaceDebris encounter with an Iridium-Cosmos fragment 😬 Quick work by our #MissionControl teams followed by an engine burn 🔥🛰️ to dodge the junk kept the mission safe 😌 #SpaceSafety
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We have ‘Acquisition of signal’ with Chang’e 5!
The Chinese #Change5🛰️is returning from the Moon with a precious lunar cargo, and ESA’s #Maspalomas ground station this morning locked on to the spacecraft ahead of upcoming separation and atmospheric re-entry of the return capsule
ESA purchases world-first #spacedebris removal mission from start-up👉esa.int/Safety_Securit
#SpaceCare
#SpaceSustainability
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We have received #telemetry from #ESAJuice!
The telemetry we receive at this stage is basic 'housekeeping' from the spacecraft; temperatures, voltages, configuration information and more.
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SPACECRAFT SEPARATION! Its job done, the #Ariane5 releases #BepiColombo so it can begin its journey to #Mercury 🛰️🌑
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***What would happen if the Carrington event of 1859 occured today? We will soon take you through a FICTONAL, yet entirely plausible scenario: THE DAY OF THE SOLAR EVENT...***
#SpaceWeather
#LagrangeMission
We now know a little more about Jan 9th's Earth impactor over the UK☄️
The #fireball:
📏entered the atmosphere at an altitude of 89km
🌬️at a speed of 10.21 km/s
⚖️with an estimated mass of 33.1g
📹
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Great footage coming in from #meteor that just came down over the UK!
twitter.com/metoffice/stat…
twitter.com/metoffice/stat…The results are in.
crashed the #DARTMission into asteroid #Dimorphos. They altered its orbit by 4%.
Orig. orbit around central 🪨: 11hr 55mins
Models expected: a few-10 mins difference
Post impact: 11hr 23mins. A 32 min orbital change!
👈
👉
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Spacecraft Separation!
< --- >
#Sentinel6 has separated from the Falcon 9 rocket. It is now flying on its own
< --- >
#Sentinel6 has separated from the Falcon 9 rocket. It is now flying on its ownA week of experiments, new arrivals and fresh supplies for . #Principia #blog blogs.esa.int/tim-peake/2016
Absolutely HUGE #congratulations to everyone at and all involved in this incredible achievement. Landing on #Mars is extremely difficult, and this perfect landing is a testament to your skill, ingenuity and sheer love of exploration
#MarsLanding
#InSight
#Touchdown
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Today is the day!🛰️
At about 13:40 CET #BepiColombo will begin the first of 22 routine thrusts, on its seven year journey to #Mercury🌑
We'll be keeping you updated throughout the day, as teams at 's #ESOC operations centre prepare the spacecraft for this milestone moment🕹️
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A time-lapse video of the Sun's incredible shape-shifting atmosphere, taken by the SWAP camera on 's #PROBA-2 satellite, from July to August 2014
🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
☂️
For a few tense days this January, a roughly 70-metre asteroid became the riskiest observed in over a decade. Despite the Moon’s attempt to scupper observations, asteroid #2022AE1 is now known to be entirely safe 🪨👉esa.int/Safety_Securit
#PlanetaryDefence
Who loves pictures of Mars🔴??
Data from our Visual Monitoring Camera instrument onboard #MarsExpress, lovingly known as the 'Mars Webcam' , is now publicly available on the Planetary Science Archive !
👉archives.esac.esa.int/psa/#!Table%20
📷collage:
A solar storm today, striking Earth with the same magnitude as the Carrington event of 1859, would result in major disruption
#SpaceWeather☀️
#SolarHazards⚠️
🎨Frederic Edwin Church's 1865 painting "Aurora Borealis"
Attention #Aurora watchers!
Last night, a Coronal Mass Ejection (#CME) arrived at Earth just as a high-speed #SolarWind stream whipped through the space environment around our planet.
#SpaceWeather #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights
📷Hanna Baguley (Isle of Anglesey, North Wales)
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That's it for today! The next data relay slot is 20 Feb, also running 17 mins, from 03:43 to 04:00 CET - followed by routine daily slots thereafter. will communicate w/NASA or ESA #Mars orbiters at least 2x a day, and typically 4-6x esa.int/ESA_Multimedia
Join #BepiColombo scientists, engineers and flight controllers for a live chat at 15:00 GMT (17:00 CEST) today on:
Facebook: facebook.com/EuropeanSpaceA
Instagram: instagram.com/europeanspacea
Livestream: livestream.com/esa
#BepiColomboEarthFlyby🌍🛰️
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A few days ago, a (small!) asteroid was discovered just before it impacted Earth – for only the fifth time in human history🔮🪨➡️esa.int/Safety_Securit
#PlanetaryDefence
#2022EB5
We have #AcquisitionOfSignal from #ESAEuclid!
The spacecraft has said its first words from space, captured by our New Norcia ground station in Western Australia.
, we hear you loud and clear.
#AoS
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ESA is coordinating ground observations from telescopes around the world with a unique view of tonight's #DART asteroid impact for #PlanetaryDefense 🪨💥🔭
Follow us as we hope to see #Dimorphos grow in brightness as light scatters from its new plume!👉esa.int/Space_Safety/P
Harpoons confirmed fired and reeled in. Flywheeel will now be switched off. is on the surface of #67P #CometLanding
China’s #Change5 has set off for the Moon!🎉
Using signals received by #Kourou station, we helped confirm that the spacecraft safely arrived in space.
Best wishes for a successful mission! See you on the homeward journey!
#Estrack 📡
#DeepSpaceCommunication
Photo 1: CGTN
Featured on , created by , we love this guide to identifying mastheads when all that space stuff is getting in the way...
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We thought about celebrating with a rhyme, but it’s Friday evening, who’s got the time 😉
#MissionPossible
#OnwardsToJupiter
#FreeTheRIME