![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2018\/05\/launch_of_esro-2b_satellite\/16869219-1-eng-GB\/Launch_of_ESRO-2B_satellite_small.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\nESRO-2 control room at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany, in 1968. <\/i>\n<\/p>\n
\nOn 17 May 1968, ESA\u2019s predecessor, the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO<\/a>), launched ESRO-2B \u2013 an 86kg cylindrical spacecraft designed to study X-rays from our closest star, the Sun, and cosmic rays from the rest of the Universe.\n<\/p>\n \nThe ESRO-2 satellites were the first developed by ESRO, with ESRO-2B launched after ESRO-2A failed to reach orbit around Earth, becoming the first mission controlled by teams at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.\n<\/p>\n \nAlso known as the International Radiation Investigation Satellite, ESRO-2B was launched with the Scout B rocket from Vandernberg Air Force Base in California.\n<\/p>\n \nThe launch of the first European satellites on US rockets came after an offer from NASA to fly these first two satellites free of charge, as a \u2018christening gift\u2019 to ESRO.\n<\/p>\n \nPowered by 3456 solar cells ESRO-2B was designed to work for one year, however it continued to return data until it re-entered Earth\u2019s atmosphere on 9 May 1971 after completing 16,282 orbits.\n<\/p>\n \nESRO\u2019s first satellites concentrated on solar and cosmic radiation and their interaction with the Earth and its magnetosphere. While ESRO-2B was designed for solar observations, it is also credited with the detection of X-rays from non-solar sources.\n<\/p>\n \nMore information<\/b>\n<\/p>\n ESRO-2B<\/a> \nESRO-2 control room at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany, in 1968. <\/i>\n<\/p>\n \nOn 17 May 1968, ESA’s predecessor, the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO<\/a>), launched ESRO-2B – an 86kg cylindrical spacecraft designed to study X-rays from our closest star, the Sun, and cosmic rays from the rest of the Universe.\n<\/p>\n \nThe ESRO-2 satellites were the first developed by ESRO, with ESRO-2B launched after ESRO-2A failed to reach orbit around Earth, becoming the first mission controlled by teams at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.\n<\/p>\n \nAlso known as the International Radiation Investigation Satellite, ESRO-2B was launched with the Scout B rocket from Vandernberg Air Force Base in California.\n<\/p>\n \nThe launch of the first European satellites on US rockets came after an offer from NASA to fly these first two satellites free of charge, as a ‘christening gift’ to ESRO.\n<\/p>\n \nPowered by 3456 solar cells ESRO-2B was designed to work for one year, however it continued to return data until it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 9 May 1971 after completing 16,282 orbits.\n<\/p>\n \nESRO’s first satellites concentrated on solar and cosmic radiation and their interaction with the Earth and its magnetosphere. While ESRO-2B was designed for solar observations, it is also credited with the detection of X-rays from non-solar sources.\n<\/p>\n \nMore information<\/b>\n<\/p>\n ESRO-2B<\/a>
ESOC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
ESOC<\/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-478795","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\/478795","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=478795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478796,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478795\/revisions\/478796"}],"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=478795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=478795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=478795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}