ESA Operations

From Earth orbit to deep space: sharing the excitement of realtime mission operations at the European Space Agency 🛰🕹️
Home of Space Safety 🛡️💙

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

🗣️“it feels like rehearsing the final act while the show is still running."

As @esa / @JAXA_en #BepiColombo prepares for #MercuryArrival, simulations are already underway – all while continuing to fly the spacecraft. 🛰️

Read more here 👉 https://t.co/vXcOA77msU

@esascience @BepiColombo

[ESA's Hera mission @ESA_Hera]

Operating across 140 million km of space from ESOC's Interplanetary Control Room (left), ESA’s Hera mission team has upgraded the software running it - leaving the spacecraft ready to explore the distant Dimorphos and Didymos asteroids this autumn https://t.co/6swAcs4NbG

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

For more information on humankind and asteroids, past and future: https://t.co/VGAH3J0PwD

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

Welcome to the Golden Age of 🪨Asteroid Exploration! 10 missions and 1 event every asteroid fan needs to know (number 6 steals the show!)...

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

Due to Apophis's flyby (as well as other milestones including the arrival of NASA's Psyche at its metal-rich asteroid target) 2029 will be the UN Year of Asteroids https://t.co/7qtj48QgHF

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

In 2023 NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped off the most sizeable asteroid sample yet from asteroid Bennu. Like Hayabusa2, that spacecraft remains active

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

Next in 2022, NASA's DART mission impacted asteroid Dimorphos (deliberately!) to divert its orbit around the larger Didymos asteroid. The attempt was a success!

[ESA's Hera mission @ESA_Hera]

Views of 2 new asteroids! The Hera team congratulates @JAXA_en 's Hayabusa2 for flying by 450-m diameter Torifune (l) and @CNSA_en's Tianwen2 for arriving at tiny 18-m Kamoʻoalewa (r).

Hera reaches Dimorphos this autumn - the 1st asteroid to have been changed by human action!

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

Save the date for #ESOC Open Day on 2 October! 📣

Come visit @esa 's mission control - the place where space missions come alive 🛰️🪐☄️🌍📡✨

Tickets will be available after the summer holidays so stay tuned here for updates.

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

The European Space Agency has contracted Spanish company @emxys for the first CubeSat designed to operate on an asteroid's surface. It will be deployed by ESA's Ramses mission onto asteroid Apophis as it passes close by Earth on Friday 13 April 2029 https://t.co/7KlwC0XvL4

[ESA Operations @esaoperations]

Asteroids regularly slam into Earth, but in 2022 a little bit of Earth slammed into an asteroid - in the shape of NASA's DART spacecraft hitting Dimorphos. This autumn ESA's Hera spacecraft reaches this same body to try and find out: could we save Earth from an incoming asteroid? #AsteroidDay