Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or low Earth orbit (LEO). The rocket had a streak of 85 consecutive successful launches between 9 April 2003 and 12 December 2017. A direct successor system, Ariane 6, is in development.
The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2014. The ATV design was launched to orbit five times, exclusively by the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle. It effectively was a larger European counterpart to the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft for carrying upmass to a single destination—the International Space Station (ISS)—but with three times the capacity.
The German Aerospace Center, abbreviated DLR, is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne and it has multiple other locations throughout Germany. The DLR is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in national and international partnerships. In addition to conducting its own research projects, DLR also acts as the German space agency. As such, it is responsible for planning and implementing the German space programme on behalf of the German federal government. As a project management agency, DLR also coordinates and answers the technical and organisational implementation of projects funded by a number of German federal ministries.
A mission control center is a facility that manages space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the ground segment of spacecraft operations. A staff of flight controllers and other support personnel monitor all aspects of the mission using telemetry, and send commands to the vehicle using ground stations. Personnel supporting the mission from an MCC can include representatives of the attitude control system, power, propulsion, thermal, attitude dynamics, orbital operations and other subsystem disciplines. The training for these missions usually falls under the responsibility of the flight controllers, typically including extensive rehearsals in the MCC.
Hopper was a proposed European Space Agency (ESA) orbital spaceplane and reusable launch vehicle. The Hopper was a FESTIP system study design.
Space launch is the earliest part of a flight that reaches space. Space launch involves liftoff, when a rocket or other space launch vehicle leaves the ground, floating ship or midair aircraft at the start of a flight. Liftoff is of two main types: rocket launch, and non-rocket spacelaunch.
Trajectory optimization is the process of designing a trajectory that minimizes some measure of performance while satisfying a set of constraints. Generally speaking, trajectory optimization is a technique for computing an open-loop solution to an optimal control problem. It is often used for systems where computing the full closed-loop solution is not required, impractical or impossible. If a trajectory optimization problem can be solved at a rate given by the inverse of the Lipschitz constant, then it can be used iteratively to generate a closed-loop solution in the sense of Caratheodory. If only the first step of the trajectory is executed for an infinite-horizon problem, then this is known as Model Predictive Control (MPC).
The Advanced Reentry Demonstrator (ARD) was a European Space Agency (ESA) suborbital reentry vehicle. It was developed and operated for experimental purposes, specifically to validate the multiple reentry technologies integrated upon it and the vehicle's overall design, as well as to gain greater insight into the various phenomenon encountered during reentry.
The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is a European Space Agency (ESA) experimental suborbital re-entry vehicle. It was developed to serve as a prototype spaceplane to validate the ESA's work in the field of reusable launchers.
The Columbus Control Centre also known by its radio callsign, Mission Control Munich, is the mission control centre which is used to control the Columbus research laboratory, which is part of the International Space Station (ISS). The control centre is located at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) facility in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany. The centre is operated by the DLR, under contract from the European Space Agency (ESA).
Artemis was a geostationary earth orbit satellite (GEOS) for telecommunications, built by Alenia Spazio for ESA. The Artemis satellite operated at the 21.5E orbital position until 2016, when it was moved to 123E to cover the L-Band spectrum rights for Indonesia's Ministry of Defense.
The Jules Verne ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 001 (ATV-001), was a robotic cargo spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency (ESA). The ATV was named after the 19th-century French science-fiction author Jules Verne. It was launched on 9 March 2008 on a mission to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo. Jules Verne was the first of five ATVs to be launched.
The Johannes Kepler ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 (ATV-002), was an uncrewed cargo spacecraft built to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). It was launched on 16 February 2011 by the European Space Agency (ESA). Johannes Kepler carried propellant, air and dry cargo weighing over 7,000 kilograms (15,000 lb), and had a total mass of over 20,000 kilograms (44,000 lb), making it, at the time, the heaviest payload launched by the ESA. The spacecraft was named after the 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler.
The Edoardo Amaldi ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 003 (ATV-003), was a European uncrewed cargo spacecraft, named after the 20th-century Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi. The spacecraft was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 23 March 2012, on a mission to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, oxygen, and dry cargo.
The Albert Einstein ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 004 (ATV-004), was a European uncrewed cargo resupply spacecraft, named after the German-born physicist Albert Einstein. It was built to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo, and also to reboost the station's altitude with its thrusters. It was the fourth and penultimate ATV to be built, following the Edoardo Amaldi, which was launched in March 2012. Albert Einstein's components were constructed in Turin, Italy, and Bremen, Germany, and underwent final assembly and testing in Bremen in 2012. The spacecraft left Bremen for Kourou on 31 August 2012 to begin launch preparations.
WORHP ( "warp"), also referred to as eNLP by ESA, is a mathematical software library for solving continuous large scale nonlinear optimization problems numerically. The acronym WORHP is sometimes spelled out as "We Optimize Really Huge Problems", its primary intended application. WORHP is a hybrid Fortran and C implementation and can be used from C/C++ and Fortran programs using different interfaces of varying complexity and flexibility. In addition interfaces for the modelling environments MATLAB, CasADi and AMPL exist.
The European contribution to the International Space Station comes from 10 members of the European Space Agency (ESA) and amounts to an 8% share in the programme. It consists of a number of modules in the US Orbital Segment, ATV supply ships, launchers, software and €8 billion.
Airbus Defence and Space is a division of Airbus responsible for defence and aerospace products and services. The division was formed in January 2014 during the corporate restructuring of European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), and comprises the former Airbus Military, Astrium, and Cassidian divisions. It is the world's second largest space company after Boeing and one of the top ten defence companies in the world.
Liquid Fly-back Booster (LFBB) was a German Aerospace Center's (DLR's) project concept to develop a liquid rocket booster capable of reusing for Ariane 5 in order to significantly reduce the high cost of space transportation and increase environmental friendliness. LFBB would replace the existing solid rocket boosters, providing main thrust during the liftoff. Once separated, two winged boosters would perform an atmospheric entry, fly back autonomously to the French Guiana, and land horizontally on the airport like an aeroplane.
The German space programme is the set of projects funded by the government of Germany for the exploration and utilisation of outer space. The space programme is run by the German Aerospace Center, who conduct research, plan, and implement the programme on behalf of the German federal government.
