Encyclopedia > European Space Research and Technology Centre
The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is ESA's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk ZH, The Netherlands. The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is ESAs main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. ... This article is about the European Space Agency. ... Noordwijk (population: 24,452 in 2004) is a municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. ...
At ESTEC about 2500 engineers, technicians and scientists work hands-on with spacecraft and space technology. The test centre provides extensive test facilities to verify the proper operation of spacecraft, such as the Large Space Simulator (LSS), acoustic en electromagnetic testing bays, multi-axis vibration tables. Almost all equipment that ESA launches are tested prior to launch at this test facility. The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is ESAs main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. ...
See also : ESA This article is about the European Space Agency. ...
The European nations decided to have two different agencies, one concerned to develop a launch system ELDO (European Launch Development Organisation) and the precursor of the EuropeanSpace Agency, ESRO (EuropeanSpaceResearch Organisation) that was established on March 20, 1964 per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
It is therefore not surprising that the first non-Soviet European in space was not an ESA astronaut on a Europeanspace craft: It was Czechoslovakian Vladimir Remek who in 1978 became the first European in space - on a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, followed by the East German Sigmund Jähn in the same year.
During the latter half of the 1980s European human space flights changed from being the exception to rather constituting a routine and therefore in 1990 the European Astronaut Centre that is situated in Cologne, Germany was established.
The EuropeanSpace Agency's Envisat satellite is currently undergoing integration and tests at the EuropeanSpaceresearch and TechnologyCentre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.
ESA's EuropeanSpace Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, will be responsible for command and control of Envisat, with payload data handling and distribution being coordinated by ESRIN, the Agency's data processing facility in Frascati, Italy.
Researchers theorize that as much as 25 percent of the anticipated global warming of Earth may be solar in origin.
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