Article Posted on : - Jan 15, 2009

ESA's Director General, Mr Jean-Jacques Dordain, during the annual press briefing held on January 14 at ESA's Headquarters in Paris. ESA image

PARIS (BNS): With a busy year ahead, Europe will launch two flagship space telescopes and three satellites that will acquire key data about ice, gravity and soils on Earth, the European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain announced at a news briefing on Wednesday.

Dordain said that human spaceflight will also be under the spotlight this year with the final selection of two European astronauts, who will be joining the International Space Station: Frank De Winne, for a long-duration mission, and Christer Fuglesang.

Quoting last year’s successes, Dordain said that the attachment of the Columbus science lab to the space station was ‘exceptional’. Talking about this year’s activities, the ESA chief said that this year will be marked with the recruitment of new astronauts and the start of Soyuz launches from the European spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana.
Dordain said that the Soyuz initiative had taken considerable investment at Kourou, to construct facilities that are a facsimile of those at the Russian rocket's traditional home of Baikonur, Kazakhstan. “This will be a significant milestone in many ways,” Dordain said.

“We really do need Soyuz because at least half of ESA missions are due for launch on Soyuz, whether that be scientific missions or Galileo satellite-navigation satellites,” Dordain said.

Talking about the much-delayed Galileo programme, Dordain said that this would be marked by positive progress, with the first contracts to build the system to be issued soon.
Dordain said that he was giving a thought to the difficulties faced by many small enterprises operating in the space sector.

“They provide us with the technology we need. As they are small companies, they are far more fragile and vulnerable, especially in cash terms. I certainly don't want ESA to cause problems for companies such as these,” Dordain said.