European Space Activity Europe, Herschel and Planck, courtesy ESA. A pioneering continent in Space Europe proved itself to be at the very forefront of space science when an Ariane 5 rocket lofted the Herschel telescope and Planck mapper. This impressive achievement is just part of the varied range of projects that the European space industry is working on for all kind of purposes. Satellite Evolution takes a snapshot of just some examples of European Space Activity. Europe has recently been very busy with all things space-related. It has even recruited new astronauts. This surely is a good indicator that the European space industry is healthy, and ambitious. Against the backdrop of the recently-implemented new space policy for Europe, the start of 2009 has been a varied quarter. We have seen the launch of Herschel and Planck that hopes to bring the answers of the origins of the universe to light. The development of Galileo continues and its funding problems seemingly are resolved. There are a plethora of ongoing projects that touch upon all elements of space and our use of space, but also that address the problems we will encounter as a result of our exploitation of the skies above. In this article, I would like to look more closely at five projects that Europe is either developing or are coming to fruition. They are: the Herschel and Planck spacecraft, ESA's Space Situational Awareness programme that is dealing with the problems of space debris, the Galileo and EGNOS programmes, the Vega launch vehicle and the GOCE satellite. All five programmes are groundbreaking in their own ways and are testimony to the fact that Europe is truly placing itself at the cutting edge of space technology, and is proving its ambitions in this field whether that is finding new ways in which to access space or to monitor the environment that we have to preserve. 12 w w w.satellite-evolution.com | May/June 2009 Europe.p65 12 04/06/2009, 15:24