Satellite News

Europe’s first polar orbiting weather satellite MetOp-A, built by Airbus Defence and Space for ESA/EUMETSAT, has been providing weather and climate data since it was launched on 19 October 2006.

Europe’s first polar orbiting weather satellite MetOp-A, built by Airbus Defence and Space for ESA/EUMETSAT, has been providing weather and climate data since it was launched on 19 October 2006.

Ten years ago the first images were returned from the CALIPSO and CloudSat atmospheric aerosol LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) and cloud-profiling radar missions following their joint launch on 28 April 2006. The satellites joined the A-Train, a coordinated group of international satellites providing simultaneous observation data used by scientists to advance knowledge of Earth-system science.

On 24 May 2006, GOES-13 was launched into orbit aboard a Boeing Delta IV rocket that took flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

On 30 April 1986, the computing system of the CNUCE Institute of Pisa (CNR) was connected to the U.S. computer network called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency NETwork). Italy thus became the fourth nation in the world (after Norway, UK and West Germany) to be connected to the network that in subsequent years became known as the Internet.

Twenty years ago, the Proton K Launch Vehicle became the first Russian rocket to enter the global commercial launch services market.

A Boeing Delta II launch vehicle lifted Mars Odyssey from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on 7 April 2001.

On 22 February 1986, exactly 30 years ago, France’s first civilian optical Earth observation satellite, Spot-1, financed by the French space agency CNES, was launched by an Ariane 1 rocket.