ESA Bulletin, No.159 August 2014

In this issue of the ESA Bulletin, you'll find the third and final instalment of a comprehensive chronology of ESA, its predecessor organisations and the history of European cooperation in space.

On the cover, one of the stunning images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by ESA’s Rosetta mission, which is producing some of the most iconic images of space exploration of all time.

Inside this issue, the ESA looks back over the year since Europe’s largest telecommunications satellite, Alphasat, was launched on 25 July 2013. This launch marked a significant milestone for an ambitious Public–Private Partnership between ESA and Inmarsat, joining forces to develop, launch and operate an innovative telecommunications satellite.

In Alphasat: Partnership in Orbit, the ESA looks at the success of this partnership being demonstrated on a daily basis: using its sophisticated payload, Alphasat is extending Inmarsat’s capacity in orbit for mobile telecommunications.

This is also an exciting and busy period for European human spaceflight. For the first time, two ESA astronauts begin their long-duration missions
 to the International Space Station in the same
 year: Alexander Gerst was launched to the orbital complex in May, followed by Samantha Cristoforetti this November. Samantha’s upcoming mission is described in The Sky is not the Limit.

ESA’s Venus Express has completed routine science observations but its work isn’t over yet. Rounding off with The Ride of a Lifetime, you can read how over the last few months, the spacecraft has made daring plunges into the planet’s hostile atmosphere, giving ESA valuable experience in ‘aerobraking’.