![\"Exoplanet](\"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Exoplanet_satellite_encapsulated_card_full.gif\")
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At Europe\u2019s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, ESA\u2019s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is being encapsulated into the flight adapter of the Soyuz-Fregat rocket that will lift it into space on 17 December.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an intense period at the Spaceport, where engineers from ESA, Airbus and CNES have been preparing for launch since the satellite arrival in mid-October.<\/p>\n
This sequence of photographs, taklen on 29 November, shows the Souyuz Arianespace System for Auxiliary Payloads (ASAP-S) being carefully and progressively aligned to Cheops, then\u00a0lowered onto and finally mated to the conic adapter. The mechanical integration is completed by fastening the fixation bolts. <\/p>\n
Cheops is ESA\u2019s first mission dedicated to the study of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. It will observe bright stars that are already known to host planets, measuring minuscule brightness changes due to the planet\u2019s transit across the star\u2019s disc.<\/p>\n
The mission will target stars hosting planets in the Earth- to Neptune-size range, yielding precise measurements of the planet sizes. This, together with independent information about the planet masses, will allow scientists to determine their density, enabling a first-step characterisation of these extrasolar worlds. A planet\u2019s density provides vital clues about its composition and structure, indicating for example if it is predominantly rocky or gassy, or perhaps harbours significant oceans.<\/p>\n
The first small, or S-class, mission in ESA\u2019s science programme, Cheops is a partnership between ESA and Switzerland, with a dedicated consortium led by the University of Bern, and with important contributions from 10 other ESA Member States.<\/p>\n
Cheops paves the way for the next generation of ESA\u2019s exoplanet satellites, with two further missions \u2013 Plato and Ariel \u2013 planned for the next decade to tackle different aspects of the evolving field of exoplanet science. Together, these missions will keep the European scientific community at the forefront of exoplanet research well beyond the next decade, and will build on answering the fundamental question: what are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life?<\/p>\n