{"id":239907,"date":"2016-03-10T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T13:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?guid=983ed45b3550c243108d282773fc2c2f"},"modified":"2016-03-10T09:07:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T13:07:00","slug":"first-contact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=239907","title":{"rendered":"First contact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2016\/03\/first_contact\/15858377-1-eng-GB\/First_contact_small.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"96\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"8\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\nAriane 5 flight VA229 lifted off yesterday morning at 05:20 GMT (02:20 local time, 06:20 CET) from Europe\u2019s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, to deliver a telecom satellite into geostationary orbit.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nJust 40 minutes later, in its first operational usage, ESA\u2019s new 4.5 m-diameter antenna located in Western Australia swung into action, acquiring signals from the launcher arcing high overhead, delivering Eutelsat-65 West A into its planned transfer orbit.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe antenna, installed in 2015 and inaugurated last month, maintained a link until the rocket flew out of visibility at a range of about 22 000 km some 80 minutes later.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe small antenna was used to \u2018slave\u2019 point ESA\u2019s much larger 35 m-diameter antenna, both at the New Norcia ground station, which could also then acquire telemetry from Ariane.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nYesterday\u2019s tracking support was the first operational usage of the antenna and demonstrated its full capabilities in a crucial, realtime assignment.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThe antenna had previously \u2018shadow\u2019 tracked LISA Pathfinder in December 2015, but that was only to test its new systems, while another ground station was simultaneously available to take over if any problems had arisen,\u201d says ground station engineer Peter Droll.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThis time, there was no back-up, so everything had to work perfectly, and it did.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe new antenna will be used for tracking rockets and communicating with newly launched satellites, taking advantage of the ideal location under the flight paths of launchers departing from Kourou.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nIts advanced technology allows it to quickly and precisely lock onto and track satellites during their critical first orbits, up to roughly 100 000 km out, as well as Europe\u2019s Ariane 5, Vega and Soyuz rockets.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<b>More information<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>\nVideo via Flickr\n<\/p>\n<p><span><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" data-header=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/esa_events\/24817631240\/in\/album-72157661857217904\/\" title=\"Antenna inauguration Australia\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1475\/24817631240_4f864584fa_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" alt=\"Antenna inauguration Australia\"><\/a><script async src=\"http:\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/esa_events\/sets\/72157661500839876\" title=\"ESA in Flickr\" >Images via Flickr<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Operations\/Estrack\/New_antenna_ready_for_business\" title=\"NNO-2\" >New antenna ready for business<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Launchers\/Ariane_5_launch_contributes_to_Ariane_6_development\" title=\"Ariane 5 flight VA229\" >Ariane 5 launch contributes to Ariane 6 development<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Operations\/Estrack\" title=\"Estrack\" >Estrack<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2016\/03\/first_contact\/15858377-1-eng-GB\/First_contact_small.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"96\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"8\"><\/p>\n<p>\nAriane 5 flight VA229 lifted off yesterday morning at 05:20 GMT (02:20 local time, 06:20 CET) from Europe&rsquo;s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, to deliver a telecom satellite into geostationary orbit.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nJust 40 minutes later, in its first operational usage, ESA&rsquo;s new 4.5 m-diameter antenna located in Western Australia swung into action, acquiring signals from the launcher arcing high overhead, delivering Eutelsat-65 West A into its planned transfer orbit.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe antenna, installed in 2015 and inaugurated last month, maintained a link until the rocket flew out of visibility at a range of about 22 000 km some 80 minutes later.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe small antenna was used to &lsquo;slave&rsquo; point ESA&rsquo;s much larger 35 m-diameter antenna, both at the New Norcia ground station, which could also then acquire telemetry from Ariane.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nYesterday&rsquo;s tracking support was the first operational usage of the antenna and demonstrated its full capabilities in a crucial, realtime assignment.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&ldquo;The antenna had previously &lsquo;shadow&rsquo; tracked LISA Pathfinder in December 2015, but that was only to test its new systems, while another ground station was simultaneously available to take over if any problems had arisen,&rdquo; says ground station engineer Peter Droll.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&ldquo;This time, there was no back-up, so everything had to work perfectly, and it did.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe new antenna will be used for tracking rockets and communicating with newly launched satellites, taking advantage of the ideal location under the flight paths of launchers departing from Kourou.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nIts advanced technology allows it to quickly and precisely lock onto and track satellites during their critical first orbits, up to roughly 100 000 km out, as well as Europe&rsquo;s Ariane 5, Vega and Soyuz rockets.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<b>More information<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>\nVideo via Flickr\n<\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/esa_events\/24817631240\/in\/album-72157661857217904\/\" title=\"Antenna inauguration Australia\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1475\/24817631240_4f864584fa_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" alt=\"Antenna inauguration Australia\"><\/a><\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/esa_events\/sets\/72157661500839876\" title=\"ESA in Flickr\" target=\"_blank\">Images via Flickr<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Operations\/Estrack\/New_antenna_ready_for_business\" title=\"NNO-2\" target=\"_blank\">New antenna ready for business<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Launchers\/Ariane_5_launch_contributes_to_Ariane_6_development\" title=\"Ariane 5 flight VA229\" target=\"_blank\">Ariane 5 launch contributes to Ariane 6 development<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Operations\/Estrack\" title=\"Estrack\" target=\"_blank\">Estrack<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239908,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239907\/revisions\/239908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}