Esa satellite "Cheops": launch aborted at the spaceport

The exploration of exoplanets by the "Cheops" space telescope will begin later than planned. The Soyuz rocket, which is supposed to launch the satellite into space, remained on the ground at the European spaceport Kourou, the operator Arianespace said. The countdown was interrupted one hour and 25 minutes before the start in French Guiana in South America. Arianespace did not explain the reasons for the delay.

The Esa scientist Günther Hasinger, on the other hand, announced on Twitter that a software error was the reason for the start abort.

Unfortunately the Soyuz launch today has been called of because of a software error in the Fregat upper stage. With this complex mission we will not take any risks. So keep fingers crossed for tomorrow same rime.

The "Cheops" satellite, which weighs around 300 kilograms, and three other satellites were due to fly into space on Tuesday morning at 9:54 a.m.CET. The new launch date will be announced as soon as possible, it said.

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The "Cheops" mission (Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite) should concentrate on the analysis of exoplanets. Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system orbiting other stars. "Cheops" is said to observe bright stars that are known to be orbited by planets. For example, the space telescope should record the small changes in brightness caused by the transit of a planet via the star disk in order to determine the size of the planet (read more about this here).

"We measure the light we get from a star," says Cheops chief executive Willy Benz. If an exoplanet passes between its star and the "Cheops" telescope, it covers a small part of the star's surface from the telescope's perspective. "This coverage results in a little less light in our telescope," explains the professor of physics and astrophysics from the University of Bern. This is how the size of the planet can be calculated.