N° 5–2023: Media invitation: View Euclid spacecraft in Cannes before launch

13 February 2023

Journalists are cordially invited to view Euclid, ESA’s ambitious mission to explore the dark Universe, in Cannes, France, on 21 February 2023.
Media will be given the rare opportunity to see the spacecraft in the cleanroom of Thales Alenia Space (TAS), prior to shipment for its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA in July 2023.

During the visit, registered media will be able to see the cleanroom of the industrial prime contractor, TAS, and to interview high-level experts from ESA and key mission partners TAS, CNES, CEA and CNRS.

Media programme (all times in CET)

10:15	Security check-in at TAS	Followed by informal welcome coffee
10:45	ESA	Giuseppe Racca ESA Euclid programme manager Overview Euclid mission
11:00	CNES	André Debus CNES EUCLID programme manager French contribution to Euclid mission
11:15	Thales Alenia Space	Paolo Musi TAS EUCLID programme manager Industrial stakes
11:30	Airbus Defence and Space	Laurent Brouard Airbus EUCLID Payload (telescope) programme manager Industrial stakes
11:45	CEA & CNRS	David Elbaz CEA Scientific Director – Astrophysics Department Stéphanie Escoffier Director of Research CNRS – Coordinator EUCLID France Scientific matters
12:00	Q&A for journalists and further individual interview opportunities
14:00	Parallel visits of Euclid spacecraft in TAS cleanrooms, in smaller guided groups
16:00	End of Media visit on TAS site

About Euclid - exploring the dark Universe

The unique ESA-led astronomy mission Euclid will explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe.

The space telescope will create the largest, most accurate 3D map of the Universe ever produced, observing shapes and movements of billions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic time, over more than a third of the sky.

From these data, Euclid will reveal how the Universe has expanded and how structures have formed over cosmic history.

ESA-lead consortium with 2000 scientists from 16 countries

Euclid is a fully European mission, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from NASA. The Euclid Consortium – consisting of more than 2000 scientists from 300 institutes in 13 European countries, the US, Canada and Japan – provided the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA selected Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its Service Module, with Airbus Defence and Space chosen to develop the Payload Module, including the telescope. NASA provided the near-infrared detectors of the NISP instrument.

Media accreditation and TAS site security context

Interested journalists are cordially invited to request their accreditation with the TAS Media team via email sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com by Thursday 16 February at the latest. They will then receive a special security registration form to fill in by Friday 17 February. the latest, to be able to participate in the media visit at the TAS industry facility at Cannes Mandelieu.

Please note that ESA will not cover for any media travel costs. Also note that mobile phones are not permitted in the TAS cleanrooms. Filming and photography of Euclid are allowed within certain limitations. Further high-quality photo & video material can also be provided by TAS Communications.

In case of questions please contact

In case of questions please contact TAS Head of Media Relations, Sandrine Bielecki: sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com
or ESA Senior Media Relations Officer, Bernhard von Weyhe: media@esa.int.

For questions or more information related to ESA images, please contact directly spaceinimages@esa.int.

Videos

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos

Terms and conditions for using ESA videos:
https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Terms_and_Conditions

For questions or more information related to ESA videos, please contact directly spaceinvideos@esa.int.

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia are Associate Members.

ESA has established formal cooperation with four Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.

Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int

For further information:

ESA Newsroom and Media Relations Office – Bernhard von Weyhe
Email: media@esa.int
Tel: +33153697504

Head of TAS Media Relations
Sandrine Bielecki
sandrine.bielecki@thalesaleniaspace.com