{"id":513047,"date":"2018-08-23T07:34:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T11:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?guid=fe8d42c3bc87fbeeff45cf20b6a27420"},"modified":"2018-08-23T07:34:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T11:34:00","slug":"mission-control-blown-away-by-aeolus-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=513047","title":{"rendered":"Mission control blown away by Aeolus launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\nESA\u2019s Aeolus satellite was launched yesterday, soon to become the first-ever satellite to directly measure Earth\u2019s winds from space.\n<\/p>\n

\nDuring a gripping night at ESA\u2019s operations centre in Germany, mission teams looked on nervously as Aeolus was thrust heavenwards atop a Vega rocket from Europe\u2019s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis image, taken in the Main Control Room of the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, captures the moment that mission teams took over control of the satellite from the launchsite in Kourou, about an hour after liftoff.\n<\/p>\n

\nCarrying one of the most sensitive instruments ever put into orbit \u2014 Aladin, a Doppler wind lidar \u2014 Aeolus will provide vital information on wind speeds around the globe. This information is expected to vastly improve weather forecasting as wind plays a complex, pivotal role in global weather systems.\n<\/p>\n

\nIronically, liftoff was delayed by 24 hours, after high winds meant it was unsafe to launch the satellite as initially planned on 21 August. Because of unclear weather predictions, the launch service provider \u2014 Arianespace \u2014 was only able to give about 24 hours notice of the delay, highlighting the need for more accurate wind models.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe next stage for Aeolus is its Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), during which flight controllers, satellite engineers and experts in flight dynamics are working non-stop to gradually switch on the satellite\u2019s various control systems and verify its health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\nESA’s Aeolus satellite was launched yesterday, soon to become the first-ever satellite to directly measure Earth’s winds from space.\n<\/p>\n

\nDuring a gripping night at ESA’s operations centre in Germany, mission teams looked on nervously as Aeolus was thrust heavenwards atop a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis image, taken in the Main Control Room of the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, captures the moment that mission teams took over control of the satellite from the launchsite in Kourou, about an hour after liftoff.\n<\/p>\n

\nCarrying one of the most sensitive instruments ever put into orbit — Aladin, a Doppler wind lidar — Aeolus will provide vital information on wind speeds around the globe. This information is expected to vastly improve weather forecasting as wind plays a complex, pivotal role in global weather systems.\n<\/p>\n

\nIronically, liftoff was delayed by 24 hours, after high winds meant it was unsafe to launch the satellite as initially planned on 21 August. Because of unclear weather predictions, the launch service provider — Arianespace — was only able to give about 24 hours notice of the delay, highlighting the need for more accurate wind models.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe next stage for Aeolus is its Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), during which flight controllers, satellite engineers and experts in flight dynamics are working non-stop to gradually switch on the satellite’s various control systems and verify its health.<\/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-513047","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\/513047","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=513047"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513148,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513047\/revisions\/513148"}],"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=513047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=513047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=513047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}