In the northern Italian town of Turin on the 19 July 2007, scientists and engineers from the European Space Agency held a press conference to celebrate the completion of the new Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE). After six years in development, the instrumentation carried on GOCE was on show in Italy at Thales Alenia Space, the company that has co-ordinated the project to date. GOCE is the first Core Earth Explorer mission to be developed as part of ESA’s Living Planet Programme. Dedicated to measuring the Earth’s gravity field with unprecedented accuracy, GOCE will significantly advance our knowledge of how the Earth works by providing insight into ocean circulation, sea-level change, climate change, volcanism and earthquakes. In the next months, GOCE will be put through a series of strenuous environmental tests at ESA-ESTEC in the Netherlands to ensure that it will withstand the rigors of launch and […]

In his weekly radio address President Bush said, “Good morning. This week I visited with troops at Charleston Air Force Base. These fine men and women are serving courageously to protect our country against dangerous enemies. The terrorist network that struck America on September the 11th wants to strike our country again. To stop them, our military, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals need the best possible information about who the terrorists are, where they are, and what they are planning.”

In his weekly radio address President Bush said, “The men who run al Qaeda are determined, capable, and ruthless. They would be in a far stronger position to attack our people if America’s military, law enforcement, intelligence services, and other elements of our government were not engaged in a worldwide effort to stop them. We will meet the responsibility that history has given us; we will adapt to changing conditions, and we will not let up until our enemies are defeated and our people are secure.”

ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will launch on board an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport, in Kourou, French Guiana. ATV will be used to restock the shelves in the International Space Station (ISS), at a frequency of one every 18 to 24 months. Weighing 20 tonnes and the size of a London double-decker bus, ATV is the largest spacecraft ever developed in Europe. Every ATV will deliver up to 6 tonnes of cargo to the ISS. Apart from food, water, air and clothes, the ATV also carries propellant for the ISS and equipment for scientific use. ATV will also be used to reboost the Station’s orbit to overcome the effects of residual atmospheric drag. After six months, the spacecraft will be loaded with waste before it is undocked for a destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, freeing up precious living and working space in the other quarters of the Station. […]

In his weekly radio address President Bush said, “This week, my Administration submitted to Congress an interim report on the situation in Iraq. This report provides an initial assessment of how the Iraqi government is doing in meeting the 18 benchmarks that Congress asked us to measure. This is a preliminary report. In September, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will return to Washington to provide a more comprehensive assessment.”