In a recent development, the European Space Agency ESA successfully launched its CHEOPS satellite on Wednesday. Previously, the space agency postponed the launch at the last moment, owing to some glitch in the rocket.
The primary purpose of the CHEOPS satellite is to observe various important aspects of exoplanets. Exoplanets are the planets outside of our solar system, which revolve around their respective sun. As CHEOPS is a telescope-based satellite, it can study multiple aspects of the exoplanets, such as their size, physical and chemical composition, and density. Scientists from the space agency revealed that the satellite would specifically observe the bright stars on the sky, and also their solar systems.
Read More: CHEOPS Launch Postpone by ESA on Last Minute
More about the Launch
Later, scientists confirmed that the CHEOPS successfully orbited in its orbit, which is around 440 miles from the surface of the earth. Scientists revealed that the positioning of the satellite is perfect, and the best they could wish for.
Didier Queloz, the winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics department, called the development exceptional. The launch is exceptional both for the European Space Agency and the future of the exoplanets exploration, he added. Scientists discovered around 4,000 exoplanets in the last 24 years.
The recent launch started at 08:54 GMT, confirmed the space agency. Arianespace, the company that responsible for the launch, was live-streaming the entire launch event on its official website. The satellite took the help of Soyuz rocket to get into the orbit.
The launch previously scheduled last Tuesday, but due to some technical problems, the administration decided to postpone it just before 85 minutes of the launch.
Recently, the budget of the European Space Agency increased significantly. As a result, the space agency got a much-needed boost to carry out it’s every scheduled launch and mission. Scientists all around the world are congratulating the space agency for the successful launch of CHEOPS.
