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European Space History
@eurospacehistory.bsky.social
1.8K followers 280 following 550 posts
Enjoying the history of the European space adventure. Continuing from @ESA_History on X

See our other channels: https://linktr.ee/european_space_history
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eurospacehistory.bsky.social
Breakfast on launch day, 28 November 1983

#OTD 42 years ago, the STS-9/Spacelab-1 crew woke up around 4 hours and 20 minutes before launch, had a preflight breakfast (or lunch?) and suited up.

More pics 👇
🔗 www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA... #Spacelab1
STS-9/Spacelab-1 crew launch day breakfast, 28 November 1983: Merbold, Parker, Young, Shaw, Lichtenberg and Garriott (pic: NASA)
November 28, 2025 at 2:11 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD 28 November 1983, with the launch of Shuttle Columbia STS-9, @esa.int made its debut in human spaceflight.

👨‍🚀 ESA's first astronaut in space, Ulf Merbold 🇩🇪
🛰️ first European scientific lab in orbit, #Spacelab-1

🔗 www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA... @dlr-de.bsky.social @exploration.esa.int #SpaceHistory
The launch of Space Shuttle Columbia STS-9/Spacelab-1, with a crew of six, the largest to date, including the first non-US astronaut to fly on a NASA mission, ESA's Ulf Merbold
November 28, 2025 at 2:01 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
The STR became the 'ESA Journal' after just two years. This new collection consolidates the existing ESA Journal series, giving access to an unbroken line of ESA's S&T publishing from 1975 up to the final volume of the ESA Journal in 1994! #50YearsOfESA

🔗 historicalarchives.esa.int/esa-str-fore...
Cover of the ESA Journal, No.1, 1977 Black and white image from STR Vol.2, No.1 tungsten whisker growth
November 28, 2025 at 1:37 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
🆕 #ESAarchives opened the 'ESA Scientific & Technical Review' collection in their SHIP database. This was the first iteration of ESA’s primary technical publication, giving insight into areas where ESA was investing its research efforts in the mid-1970s.

🔗 historicalarchives.esa.int/opening-esa-...
Blue and white cover of ESA's Scientific and Technical Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1975 Black and white diagram of a satellite from an ESA STR publication
November 28, 2025 at 1:20 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#ThisWeek 35 years ago: 26 November 1988, launch of
@cnes.fr astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien 🇫🇷 on his #Aragatz mission!

@aseastronauts.bsky.social @exploration.esa.int @cieletespace.bsky.social @museeairespace.bsky.social @citedelespace.bsky.social

www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
Launch of Soyuz TM-7 on 26 November 1988 Jean-Loup Chretien enjoys a snack after recovery Pre-launch portrait of Jean-Loup Chretien in Sokol suit with mission and agency patches (Pic: CNES)
November 27, 2025 at 1:58 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD 26 November 1965, France 🇫🇷 launched its first satellite Astérix, on a Diamant A rocket from Hammaguir, Algeria. It is still in orbit today but not operational

@fr.esa.int @cnes.fr @museeairespace.bsky.social @citedelespace.bsky.social

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ast%C3%...
Launch into a blue sky on 26 November 1965 of a Diamant A rocket from the CIEES launch site at Hammaguir, Algeria.
November 26, 2025 at 1:28 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#ThisWeek in 2014, 23 November, Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was launched on her first spaceflight. With @astroterry.bsky.social and Anton Shkaplerov, she joined Expedition 42 on the ISS.

www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @ita.esa.int @exploration.esa.int @aseastronauts.bsky.social
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti during a simulation inside the full-scale mockup of the Soyuz capsule, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, on 14 October 2014. Samantha Cristoforetti is assigned to fly on the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft to the ISS, scheduled for November 2014 and as part of Expedition 42/43.
November 25, 2025 at 4:57 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#50YearsofESA

#2022

Launched in November 2022, Artemis I was the uncrewed first mission of NASA's Artemis programme that tested the Orion spacecraft (powered by ESA's European Service Module) and the Space Launch System rocket on a flight around the Moon and back to Earth.
A photo taken from one of the Orion spacecraft's cameras mounted on a solar panel wing showing its view of Earth and the Moon from lunar orbit during the Artemis I mission (pic: NASA)
November 25, 2025 at 3:48 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
😎 While space ministers plan for the future next week at ESA's Ministerial Council #CM25 on 26-27 November, #ESAarchives look back to the beginnings of ESA and its first Ministerial Council.
Opening of ESA's Ministerial Council 1977 with Gaston Geens (outgoing Chairman) seated in the centre as President, with Director General Roy Gibson on the left and Chairman of the ESA Council Wolfgang Finke on the right © ESA ECSR Main conference room, ESA HQ Paris, during Ministerial Council 1977 © ESA ECSR
November 21, 2025 at 1:52 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#50YearsOfESA

#2021

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Ariane 5 VA256 by Arianespace on behalf of ESA from Europe’s Spaceport on 25 December 2021. #SpaceHistory #Space #History #ScienceHistory

@transport.esa.int @cnes.fr @science.esa.int @stsci.edu
Webb's separation from the Ariane 5 launcher upper stage is seen here by a camera manufactured by Irish company Réaltra Space Systems Engineering. Black sky and Earth fill the background.
November 20, 2025 at 2:04 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD: 20 November 1998, #Zarya, the first component of the International Space Station, was launched, starting a new era of human exploration of space (Zarya = 'functional cargo block' for initial propulsion and power for the future Space Station).

www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @exploration.esa.int
Launch of Zarya module on 20 November 1998 on a Proton-K rocket,
November 20, 2025 at 1:21 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#50YearsOfESA

#2020

Solar Orbiter was launched on 10 February 2020. An ESA mission with NASA participation, Solar Orbiter is the most complex scientific mission ever sent to our Sun, taking the closest images than any spacecraft before and the first to study our star's polar regions up close 🧪🔭
The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft was launched on 10 February 2020, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop an Atlas V 411 rocket.
November 20, 2025 at 1:00 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD: 16 November 2022, @esa.int and NASA headed back to the #Moon together, with the launch of #Artemis I and NASA’s Orion spacecraft powered by the first European Service Module, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

www.esa.int/Science_Expl... #ForwardToTheMoon
Launch of Artemis I, a camera on the mobile launcher shows the rocket and spacecraft lifting off as umbilical arms swing away to provide a clean path for the rocket’s ascent (pic: NASA/C. Coleman, K. Davis)
November 16, 2025 at 4:31 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OnThisDay 2️⃣5️⃣ years ago: 14 November 2000, #Portugal deposited its Instrument of Accession to the ESA Convention, making it @esa.int's 15th Member State.

www.esa.int/About_Us/Cor...
The green and red flag of Portugal
November 14, 2025 at 1:51 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD: 12 November 2014, @esa.int's Rosetta Philae lander made history by touching down on the surface of a comet, the first spacecraft ever to do so. The landing was confirmed at 16:03 GMT/17:03 CET 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

@cnes.fr @dlr-de.bsky.social @operations.esa.int @science.esa.int
Rosetta’s lander Philae is safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as these first two CIVA images confirm. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. The image is a two-image mosaic (pic: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA)
November 12, 2025 at 11:19 AM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#50YearsOfESA

#2019

Cheops was launched on 18 December 2019. ESA's 'CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite' is the first space mission dedicated to determining the sizes of known extrasolar planets, to allow estimation of their mass, density and composition.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHEOPS

@cnes.fr
The launch of ESA's Cheops on a Soyuz rocket operated by Arianespace from Europe's spaceport in Kourou on 18 December 2019 (pic: ESA/CNES/Arianespace)
November 11, 2025 at 3:29 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
The #ESAarchives Object of the Month for November is about the space connections between present and past in the German city of Bremen. While this month it plays host to ESA Ministerial Council meeting (CM25), almost 50 years ago it played an important role in one of ESA's first flagship projects.
Payload racks for ESA's Spacelab Module in Bremen. The Spacelab racks bend inward at 45° at the top to make better use of the upper volume. Note the handrails that follow this angle. The Spacelab module Engineering Model being fitted with integrated subsystems and experiments in the Integration Hall at ERNO, Bremen, Germany, 1978
November 10, 2025 at 1:58 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
ESA's next mission to Venus, #Envision, will be launched in the 2030s to provide a complete view of the planet, from inner core to upper atmosphere, to determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently.

www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @cmundell.esa.int @thalesaleniaspace.bsky.social @esa.int
Artist impression of ESA's Envision spacecraft
November 9, 2025 at 11:20 AM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD 2️⃣0️⃣ years ago: 9 November 2005, launch of ESA's Venus Express, Europe's first spacecraft to #Venus. The mission ended in 2014 after eight years of operation around our nearest planetary neighbour 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @science.esa.int @operations.esa.int
The Soyuz FG-Fregat vehicle carrying Venus Express, ESA's first probe to Venus, lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 04:33 CET on 9 November 2005 (pic: ESA/Starsem-S. Corvaja) Artist impression of Venus Express in orbit around the planet Venus
November 9, 2025 at 11:13 AM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#50YearsOfESA

#2018

BepiColombo was launched on 20 October 2018, on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. It's a joint ESA/JAXA mission to study Mercury, now on an eight-year journey with arrival in orbit expected in late 2026.

www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @science.esa.int
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury lifts off into a black night sky from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou (pic: ESA/CNES/Arianespace)
November 5, 2025 at 4:34 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#50YearsOfESA

#2017

#Copernicus Sentinel-5P ('Precursor') was launched on 13 October 2017, the first Copernicus mission dedicated to monitoring our atmosphere, carrying the state-of-the-art TROPOMI instrument to map a range of trace gases & aerosols.

www.esa.int/Applications... @euspa.bsky.social
Sentinel-5 Precursor – also known as Sentinel-5P – is the first Copernicus mission dedicated to monitoring our atmosphere. The satellite carries the state-of-the-art Tropomi instrument to map a multitude of trace gases, which affect the air we breathe and therefore our health and our climate.
November 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD 🔟F years ago: 4 November 2015, #Hungary became ESA’s 22nd Member State when it deposited its instrument of ratification of the ESA Convention in Paris. #50YearsOfESA

www.esa.int/About_Us/Cor...
Red, white and green flag of Hungary
November 4, 2025 at 4:21 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD: 3 November 1994, launch of French ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy 🇫🇷 on STS-66 #Discovery. This was the first of three spaceflights for Jean-François, during this mission he logged 62 hours and 34 minutes in space over 175 Earth orbits 🧪

@fr.esa.int @cnes.fr @soph-astro.esa.int
Close-up of helmeted Jean-Francois Clervoy Launch of STS-66 in November 1994
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 PM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
Since then, our planet has continually had at least a few humans away from home... #SpaceHistory @exploration.esa.int

www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
Expedition 1 crew in December 2000 about to eat oranges in the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. From left cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko NASA astronaut William Shepherd and cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. Expedition 1 was the first crew to live on the International Space Station (pic: NASA)
October 31, 2025 at 11:56 AM
eurospacehistory.bsky.social
#OTD 2️⃣5️⃣ years ago: 31 October 2000, launch of Expedition 1 and the first permanent crew to the International Space Station 🚀

Anyone born after this date has never known a day without a human presence in space... 🎂
Launch of Soyuz TM31 on 31 October 2000. Crew of ISS Expedition 1: Exp.1 Commander Bill Shepherd (centre), Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko (right) and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev (left)
October 31, 2025 at 11:52 AM