Students Build Longest Structure Ever To Be Launched

Second Young Engineers’ Satellite (YES2) Test Programme begins

“The YES2 project involves more than 400 students from across Europe and around the world. The satellite is scheduled to be launched by a Soyuz rocket in September 2007, piggybacking on ESA’s Foton-M3 microgravity mission. One of the most important aspects of this innovative mission is the deployment of a 30 km long tether to deploy the Fotino mini-satellite and re-entry capsule. . Not only will this be the longest artificial structure ever deployed in space, but it will also be the first time that a tether has been used to return a payload from space. The flight is intended to demonstrate how such a tether can be used to change a satellite’s orbit without attitude control systems or rocket engines.”

YES2 Homepage Editor’s note: (Be certain to click on the 1 2 3 4 5 at the bottom of the page – there’s a lot more to this website)

Editor’s note: Today’s YouTube Videos: YES2 MDU integration – Day 1 – First day of the integration of the Mass Dummy Unit of the ESA second Young Engineers’ Satellite.

YES2 presentation by Ape (in Italian – nice view of spacecraft) – YES2 presented by Fernando Apestegua before the thermo-vacuum test in ESTEC.