From left to right: Arianespace Chief Commercial Officer Steven Rutgers, ESA Director of Science Carole Mundell, ESA Director of Space Transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and Arianespace CEO David Cavaillolès during the signature event of the launch agreement to fly ESA’s scientific mission Plato, at the 17th European Space Conference in Brussels. Plato, PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, is ESA’s groundbreaking mission to discover potentially habitable planets around stars similar to our Sun, and study thousands of exoplanets in detail, focusing on terrestrial ones. Plato will board Ariane 6 with two boosters for a launch from Europe’s Spaceport, in French Guiana, end of 2026, and will be placed into orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.
Read more