The head of the European Space Agency has confirmed that two ESA science spacecraft will be launched on US rockets. The collapse of space relations between Europe and Russia following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means that Europe must find new rides for spacecraft that were to be launched on the Russian Soyuz rocket at a time when Europe’s own launchers are in a state of transition. A decision on how to launch two European Union Galileo navigation satellites is still pending. At the same time, the ESA Council strongly reaffirmed its support for the rescheduling of the ExoMars mission without Russian participation, aiming for a launch in 2028.
Until February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the European launcher stable at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana included Vega for small payloads, medium-class Soyuz-ST through a partnership with Russia and the heavier Ariane 5.
Upgrades to Vega and Ariane were already underway. The new Vega-C had a successful maiden launch this summer and Ariane 6 is under development. There are only three Ariane 5s left. However, the ESA announced earlier this week that the first Ariane 6 launch has slipped again and is not expected until at least the last quarter of 2023.
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While this transition is underway, Europe has lost access to Soyuz-ST. The Euro-Russian partnership, called Starsem, was one of the first victims of the sanctions imposed by Europe against Russia because of Ukraine. Two days after the invasion, Dmitry Rogozin, then head of the Russian space agency, withdrew all Russian citizens from Kourou and suspended Soyuz launches in retaliation for sanctions.
As a medium-lift launch vehicle, Soyuz fits perfectly between Vega and Ariane 5. Three ESA science satellites – EarthCARE, Hera and Euclid – and two EU Galileo navigation satellites were planned for Soyuz launches in addition to a number of commercial launches for other clients. .
The Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission is a cooperative program between ESA and JAXA. He will study how clouds and aerosols reflect solar radiation back into space and trap infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface. Hera will visit the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid pair to collect additional data following Dimorphos’ impact by NASA’s DART spacecraft last month as a test of planetary defense. DART and Hera are part of the NASA-ESA Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment collaboration. Euclid is a near infrared space telescope to measure the acceleration of the universe to better understand dark energy and dark matter.
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On October 20, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher announced that the ESA Council, made up of representatives from the agency’s 22 member states, had agreed that Euclid and Hera would now launch on SpaceX rockets. Falcon 9, Euclid in 2023 and Hera in 2024. EarthCARE launch on European Vega-C in 2023.
ESA has a long-standing policy of favoring the use of European-built rockets, with Soyuz as a second choice. Finding launch services from other countries is rare. Aschbacher stressed that this is “a temporary measure that we have to launch on other launchers” due to the lack of availability of Soyuz and the delay of Ariane 6.
The European Union has also used Soyuz to launch its Galileo satellite navigation system. Galileo is funded, managed and owned by the EU, with ESA responsible for design, development and deployment. The constellation of 24 operational satellites is similar to the US Global Positioning System.
ESA navigation director Javier Benedicto said the constellation is now fully functional, but two replacement satellites will need to be launched in late 2023 or early 2024. Ariane 6 is the preferred launcher, but with the delay of its first launch, analyzes are in progress. underway to assess non-European options if necessary. A decision is expected in the first half of 2023.
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The cost of changing Soyuz is not yet clear because there could be financial and legal consequences to the termination of the Starsem partnership, Aschbacher explained, and ESA does not know whether the deposits it paid for the Soyuz launches will be returned. But ESA science program manager Günter Hasinger said switching to Falcon 9 for Euclid, at least, was good for his budget. “I think the decision to move Euclid to Falcon has a positive effect on the science budget because we save a lot of time ‘compared to waiting for Ariane 6 to be ready’ and also the launcher, I think it have to put the cost in perspective against what we had planned,” suggesting that Falcon 9 is cheaper.
Another ESA program deeply impacted by the breakdown of Euro-Russian space cooperation is ExoMars. ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover and Russian lander Kazachok were due to launch to Mars a month ago on a Russian Proton rocket. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took place just before the lander/rover combination was shipped to the launch site. It is still in Italy that the rover was built and integrated into the lander.
ESA has ended the ExoMars partnership and is rescheduling the mission for launch in 2028. It is to build its own lander and will seek funding for this at the ESA Ministerial Council meeting next month.
Aschbacher said ESA Council members strongly reaffirmed their support for ExoMars, but the final decision will be taken at ministerial level next month. “Science with the Rosalind Franklin rover in 2028…is still the most advanced and interesting science in the search for life on Mars. It will be the only instrument with a drill that goes down to 2 meters into the surface that would have this ability to search for microbial life on Mars. No other similar mission is planned. So even if the launch happens in 2028… it would still be cutting edge science.
However, not all space cooperation between Europe and Russia is over. Both participate in the International Space Station with the United States, Canada and Japan. This partnership has remained intact until now. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has just returned from 170 days on the ISS where she and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev conducted a joint spacewalk on the Russian segment, one of the very rare instances where non-Russians wore Russian spacesuits. Last year, Russia docked a new science module to the ISS, Nauka, which includes an ESA robotic arm.
Cristoforetti became the first European woman to command the ISS in September and welcomed the NASA/SpaceX Crew-4 on board in October. That crew included Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, the first Russian to fly on an American spacecraft since 2002. At a press conference after landing Thursday, Cristoforetti called Kikina “a very good friend and a person that I admire and love very much”. ”
Rogozin was abruptly replaced as head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos by Yuri Borisov in July. When asked if he had ever been contacted by Borisov, Aschbacher replied “not yet, but I can’t wait for that to happen”.
Last Updated: October 23, 2022 11:45 a.m. ET
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