Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #missioncontrol

Most recents (4)

After 6 years in orbit, we say goodbye to @CopernicusEU #Sentinel1B and thank you to teams here at ESA’s #MissionControl, who for months have worked tirelessly to troubleshoot the issue that has now resulted in end of mission 👉esa.int/Applications/O…
As the first mission of the @CopernicusEU Programme, Sentinel-1 comprises two satellites orbiting 180 degrees apart, providing all-weather, day-and-night imagery of Earth’s surface, designed, built, launched and flown by @ESA.
The partner satellite, Sentinel-1A, remains healthy in orbit, continuing to deliver high-quality radar images for a multitude of applications.

Our focus is on fast-tracking the launch of Sentinel-1C.
Read 8 tweets
On Monday, for the first time, we performed a set of manoeuvres to avoid a high-risk collision w. #SpaceDebris created in the #Cosmos1408 anti-satellite test last year.

This was a difficult #CollisionAvoidance manoeuvre.👏👏to our #Sentinel1A Control Team & Space Debris Office
#CollisionAvoidance monitoring is unfortunately routine work at #MissionControl, and our teams are well-practiced in reacting to high-risk events.

This near head-on #collision was however unique; the situation evolved rapidly, was tricky to avoid, AND we had <24 hrs warning
Sentinal-1A, part of the @CopernicusEU Sentinel-1 radar observatory providing day-and-night images of Earth’s surface, had its orbit altered by 140 m in order to prevent collision with a debris fragment ~several cm in diameter

#CollisionAvoidance
#SpaceSwerve
Read 7 tweets
ESA's #missioncontrol centre is preparing for the launch of #Sentinel6 on 10 Nov.

In particular, teams are rehearsing the 'Launch and Early Orbit Phase' – the riskiest period in the fledgling spacecraft's life

Find out more🛰️👉esa.int/Enabling_Suppo… Image
Like a bird hatching from the egg, this is the period in which a new spacecraft unfurls its solar arrays, wakes up to test its core functioning and manoeuvres into the correct path, all the while at its most vulnerable to the hazards of space.

#Sentinel6 Image
The @CopernicusEU #Sentinel6 Michael Freilich satellite will ensure the 'continuity of service’ of the Jason missions currently providing data on Earth’s changing oceans, but reaching the end of their lives. Image
Read 9 tweets
I saw the movie #Apollo13 with #LunarModule Program Director #JoeGavin. Now it’s time to tell the forgotten story—which that film doesn’t show—of how he & his #Grumman #Team helped rescue the astronauts with a #LMLifeboat while the world watched: andrewerickson.com/2020/04/apollo… #Apollo50
Five decades ago, during the aborted #Apollo13 mission of April 1970, #Grumman Aerospace Corporation’s #LunarModule saved 3 astronauts by becoming a lifeboat-tugboat. Throughout the crisis, #LM Program Director #JoeGavin manned his post @NASA’s #MissionControl Center in #Houston.
Gavin led a multi-hundred-person team in Houston & Bethpage, NY to help coordinate assessment & use of the #LM’s capabilities for emergency #LunarLifeboat role.

Gavin, virtually all of his colleagues + contemporaries & #Grumman itself have subsequently departed from the scene.
Read 35 tweets

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