European Space History

@eurospacehistory

Enjoying the history of the European space adventure. Continuing from @ESA_History on Twitter. See our other channels:

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European Space History@eurospacehistory· 24d

#OTD: 23 July 1999, launch of STS-93 Columbia carrying NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this flight. Also on board was French @cnes.fr astronaut Michel Tognini. www.nasa.gov/mission/sts-... @esa.int @nasaspaceflight.com @fr.esa.int

STS-93 crew, from left, Eileen Collins, Steve Hawley, Jeff Ashby, Michel Tognini and Cady Coleman (pic: NASA)

European Space History@eurospacehistory· 25d

Part of the ESA stand for the #Farnborough Air Show in 1980 promoting European communication satellites, with a list of satellites in orbit or under development at the time: OTS-2, ECS-1, Marecs A and L-Sat (Olympus), with live link TV monitors. #FIA2026 @esaconnectivity.esa.int

European Space History@eurospacehistory· 25d

With #Farnborough Airshow 2026 now on, the #ESAarchives are taking us back to the 1980 version! See how live satellite linkups worked almost 50 years ago on the ESA stand! Come visit! 😉 historicalarchives.esa.int#oom @esa.int @esaconnectivity.esa.int @ukspaceagency.bsky.social

European Space History@eurospacehistory· 27d

#MeetThePioneers No.5: Gen. Robert Aubinière (1912-2001), first Director General of French space agency @cnes.fr 1962-1972, and second Secretary General of ELDO. General Aubinière was one of the key figures in creating a European space agency @esa.int #50YearsOfESA www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA...

Black and white photo of Robert Aubiniere

European Space History@eurospacehistory· 27d

🆕 We just added the latest gallery to ESA's archive of launch pics, 'Ariane 4 launches from Europe's Spaceport'. www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup... This now completes the set of galleries from Ariane 1 to 6, plus Soyuz and Vega. You can see them all here: linktr.ee/european_spa...

Screenshot of thumbnails for a selection of Ariane 4 launches as illustration for the full gallery

European Space History@eurospacehistory· 27d

#OTD 20 July 2019, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is launched on his second flight to the ISS. During his #Beyond mission, he becomes the first Italian commander of the ISS and makes four spacewalks 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @ita.esa.int @exploration.esa.int #SpaceHistory #Space #History

Night launch of Soyuz MS-13 on 20 July 2019, with Luca Parmitano, Drew Morgan and Alexander Skvortsov, to the ISS.

In white Sokol spacesuit, Luca Parmitano waves at crowds as he walks to his spacecraft launch site on 20 July 2019

European Space History@eurospacehistory· 27d

#ESAarchives looks at another chapter in the story of ESA's Science programme, going back to the 1980s and the ‘Green Book’ (our shorthand!), also known as 'Recommendations on the development of space science in the 1980s' 🧪🔭 historicalarchives.esa.int/green-book-f... #Space #History #SpaceHistory

Black and white illustration for book cover, showing satellites over a cloudy European continent as seen from space

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 16

Ready for some 90s nostalgia? 🎥 🎞️ Looking at video and farther back to ESA’s historical analogue film, how Instagram reels got their name and how a specialised team is preserving ESA’s heritage in video tape footage 📹 historicalarchives.esa.int/brief-histor... @eui-euarchives.bsky.social

Box of film reels from various ESA missions (Pic: ESA ECSR)

Betacam SP and digital Betacam tapes (pic: ESA ECSR)

Digitisation set-up, VTR and monitor (pic: ESA ECSR)

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 9

#OTD 9 July 2024, Ariane 6 was launched on its inaugural flight #VA262, completing its mission of releasing several varied satellites into a circular Earth orbit and restoring Europe’s independent access to space 🚀🧪🔭 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup... @cnes.fr @transport.esa.int

Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 launches to the blue sky on bright white exhaust plumes on 9 July 2024.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 8

#OTD 1️⃣5️⃣ years ago: 8 July 2011, Space Shuttle #Atlantis STS-135 lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on its final mission, ending a 30-year era of space shuttle flights 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @esa.int @exploration.esa.int @smithsonianmag.bsky.social

White shuttle orbiter seen in centre with its brown external tank and white side boosters, lifts off with launch tower to the left and exhaust plume to the right.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 6

#OTD 6 July 1964, ESRO’s first sounding rocket was launched from Salto di Quirra, Sardinia, Italy 🚀 Article from 50th anniversary in 2014: www/esa.int/Abou... @transport.esa.int @ita.esa.int @science.esa.int

ESRO sounding rocket launcher and crew at the Salto di Quirra range in Sardinia, Italy, c.1965

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 5

#ThisWeek 10 years ago: 4 July 2016, this wide angle image of #Comet67P was taken by the OSIRIS camera on ESA's Rosetta spacecraft from a distance of 13.3 km 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/spaceinimage... @dlr-de.bsky.social @cnes.fr @science.esa.int @cmundell.esa.int @operations.esa.int

Black and white image of the surface of Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken by the OSIRIS wide-angle camera. The scale is 1.28 m/pixel at the comet and the image measures about 2.6 km.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 5

#OTD: 5 July 2023, the final Ariane 5 flight, #VA261, took to the skies from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup... @cnes.fr @transport.esa.int @fr.esa.int

Ariane 5 VA261 liftoff lights up the night sky over tropical rainforest at Kourou, French Guiana.

Unusual view of Ariane 5 VA261 liftoff from close up at the base of the launch pad, lens is covered by water drops from the sound-suppression system, and the two booster plumes with main engine blue shock diamonds visible at top of image.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 5

Millie was a visiting consultant at ESA's ESTEC centre in 2013. Sadly, she passed away in 2021. @admirablewomen.bsky.social @nl.esa.int @technology.esa.int

Millie in ESA ESTEC's Life Sciences laboratory in 2013

Millie meets Dutch ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers (left) and Kazakh cosmonaut Talgat Musabayev (right) at ESA ESTEC in 2013.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 3

#OTD 3 July 2003, ESA's Mars Express was pointed backwards to see a view of the Earth-Moon system from 8 million km while on its way to Mars. This was the first image of planetary objects taken by its High Resolution Stereo Camera 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... @science.esa.int @cmundell.esa.int

A blue crescent Earth on the left, with a tiny silver grey crescent Moon on the right, separated by a black void. The image was built by combining a super resolution black-and-white snapshot image of Earth and the Moon taken by the Mars Express HRSC camera with colour information obtained by the blue, green and red sensors of the instrument.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 2

🤓 If you want a really good read about what working on a pioneering space mission is really like, you can't do much better than Nigel Calder's 'Giotto to the Comets' (London: Presswork, 1992) #SpaceHistory #Space #History #Books @science.esa.int

Cover of Nigel Calder's Giotto to the Comets book

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 2

#ThisWeek in 2023: @esa.int’s Euclid spacecraft was launched on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, USA. The mission is exploring how the Universe has expanded over cosmic history, revealing more about the nature of gravity, dark energy and dark matter 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @science.esa.int

Launch of Euclid, ESA’s latest astrophysics mission, into a blue sky on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA

Artist impression of the Euclid mission in space. The spacecraft is white and gold and consists of three main elements: a flat sunshield, a large cylinder where the light from space will enter, and a 'boxy' bottom containing the instruments.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 2

#ThisWeek in 1993: French @cnes.fr astronaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré was launched on the 21-day #Altair mission to the Mir space station on 1 July. @aseastronauts.bsky.social @fr.esa.int @exploration.esa.int @museeairespace.bsky.social @citedelespace.bsky.social @cieletespace.bsky.social

Jean-Pierre Haigneré (right) was launched on 1 July 1993 on Soyuz TM-17 with commander Vasili Tsibilyev (centre) and Alexander Serebrov.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 2

#OTD 2 July 1985, launch of #Giotto, ESA's first deep-space probe, on #Ariane1 V14 from Europe's Spaceport, to make encounters with comets #Halley and #GriggSkjellerup. The start of Europe's cometary adventures! 🚀☄️ www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @science.esa.int @transport.esa.int @cmundell.esa.int

The launch of the Giotto spacecraft on Ariane 1 flight V14 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 2 July 1985.

Lowering Giotto and its adapter ring onto the third stage of the Ariane 1 launch vehicle. Technicians operating in blue cleanroom overalls.

Close-up detail of embroidery on an original ESA Giotto project patch

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jul 1

#OTD 1 July 2004 (30 June US time), the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn, the first to do so. This is the first image of the planet's rings received after orbit insertion. www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... @carolynporco.bsky.social @cmundell.esa.int @science.esa.int

After becoming the first spacecraft to enter orbit around Saturn, Cassini-Huygens sent back a photograph of a portion of the planet's rings. It was taken by the spacecraft's narrow-angle camera and shows the dark, unlit side of the rings.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 30

#OTD 29 June 1990, #SpaceExpo was opened by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Space Expo in Noordwijk is Europe’s first permanent space exhibition, as well as @nl.esa.int’s official visitor centre (pics:ESA) 🧐 Can you identify the guest astronauts? www.space-expo.nl/en @koninklijkhuis.bsky.social

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 20

#OTD 3️⃣0️⃣ years ago, 20 June 1996: @cnes.fr astronaut Jean-Jacques Favier was launched on Space Shuttle Columbia STS-78. The 16-day mission studied the effects of long-duration spaceflight on human physiology in preparation for flights to the International Space Station. www.nasa.gov/mission/sts-...

Closeup view looking up at liftoff of Space Shuttle STS-78

Crew of STS-78 in orange launch and reentry suits

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 20

From the bottom drawer: original ESA brochure cover for the flight of Umberto Guidoni, on Space Shuttle STS-100, when he became the first European to visit the International Space Station in April 2001. And yes, that is Comic Sans... 😱 @exploration.esa.int @aseastronauts.bsky.social @ita.esa.int

Red brochure cover with white and green text, a colourful design with ESA and ASI logos at the bottom.

A red brochure back cover, with images of Umberto Guidoni, the Space Station and a Space Shuttle, with white text captions

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 20

This month 30 years ago: ESA’s inaugural Ariane 5 flight V88, also known as Flight 501, was lost on 4 June 1996, when the new rocket was destroyed just 37 seconds after launch. The catastrophic failure was caused by software error in the rocket's guidance system. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_...

Exhaust plume at left ends in smoke and debris trails after the explosion of Ariane 5 V88 (flight 501) in June 1996.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 10

For #InternationalArchivesWeek 2026, #ESAarchives talks about the preservation challenges faced in real life, far away from the textbooks and theory. historicalarchives.esa.int/brief-histor... @eui-eu.bsky.social @eui-eu.bsky.social @eui-euarchives.bsky.social

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 10

Discover the story of a collection of 800 000 microfiches from ESA and its predecessors, refresh your memory on how microfiches were used in the pre-digitial era…

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 10

Find out how a bronze cast of the Infanta Margaret Theresa from Las Meninas is helping to save irreplaceable ELDO information…

Bronze figurine sitting on sheets of white paper, on wood-effect surface.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 9

On 14 June, Joos Ockels will give another inspiring talk at Space Expo in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Joos shares special memories of ESA astronaut Wubbo Ockels's space adventure. More details 👇 www.space-expo.nl/en/discover/... @nl.esa.int @exploration.esa.int @aseastronauts.bsky.social

Joos Ockels is giving four lectures at Space Expo during 2026, offering an exclusive, behind-the-scenes insight into Wubbo’s journey into space.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 9

#ThisWeek in 2018, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst was launched to the ISS on his long-duration #Horizons mission. This was Alexander's second flight, he took over as commander of the station during Expedition 57. www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @exploration.esa.int @de.esa.int @dlr-de.bsky.social

Launch of Soyuz MS-09, the rocket leaves the launch pad into a blue, slightly cloudy sky, on a pillar of white and orange flame.

Alexander Gerst (right) with NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev.

European Space History@eurospacehistory· Jun 9

#ThisWeek in 1988, Alexander Alexandrov became the second Bulgarian citizen in space, flying on Soyuz TM-5 to the #Mir space station on 7 June. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksan...