CHEOPS, the mission in search of exoplanets, successfully launched

2019-12-18 00:00:00
CHEOPS, the mission in search of exoplanets, successfully launched
With a day's delay over the initial schedule, today, 18 December 2019, at 9:54 am CET (05:54 am local time in French Guiana), the CHEOPS (CHaracterizing Exoplanet Satellite) mission, has successfully been launched. CHEOPS is a space telescope that aims to study new planets outside the solar system – the so-called exoplanets. 

The lift-off will be done with an Arianespace Soyuz-Fregat rocket from the Guiana Space Center at Kourou, French Guiana. The separation of the telescope is scheduled to happen at Lift-off (L) + 145 mins and the first acquisition of CHEOPS signal is expected at L + 174 mins (L + 169-179 mins). The take-off can be followed live through this website.

The telescope carries onboard two plates with about 3000 drawings from European children, including 297 from Spain. The drawings, which can be consulted here, have been engraved in a miniaturized form, shrunk by a factor of 1000, on two titanium plates that CHEOPS will carry in orbit around our planet.

Best wishes to the most artistic space mission!
 

Video

English video animation: Cheops Consortium

Catalan animació en vídeo: Cheops Consortium

Spanish video de animación: Cheops Consortium

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