European Space Agency launches planet-hunting Cheops while Rocket Lab starts on a third launchpad
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/24/space_round_up/
Roundup While the travails of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner may have captured space fans' attention, there was plenty of other fun and games happening in the world of rockets as 2019 came to a close.
ESA's exoplanet mission, Cheops (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite), finally left Arianespace's Kourou spaceport in French Guiana atop a Soyuz-Fregat booster. The launch occurred at 09:54 CET on 18 December, and signals from the spacecraft were received just under three hours later, at 12:43 CET, via the wonderfully named "Troll" ground tracking station.
European Space Agency launches planet-hunting Cheops while Rocket Lab starts on a third launchpad
Dec 24, 2019, 2:24pm UTC
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/24/space_round_up/
> Roundup While the travails of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner may have captured space fans' attention, there was plenty of other fun and games happening in the world of rockets as 2019 came to a close.
> ESA's exoplanet mission, Cheops (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite), finally left Arianespace's Kourou spaceport in French Guiana atop a Soyuz-Fregat booster. The launch occurred at 09:54 CET on 18 December, and signals from the spacecraft were received just under three hours later, at 12:43 CET, via the wonderfully named "Troll" ground tracking station.