CHEOPS satellite will take off from Guyana in 2019

Equipped with an exoplanet observation telescope developed by the University of Bern, CHEOPS (CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite) was subjected to vibration tests at Ruag Space in Zurich.

The CHEOPS satellite, partly developed and tested in Switzerland, will undergo tests abroad before being sent to French Guiana to be launched in 2019. It will carry children's drawings that were presented Monday in Bern.

Equipped with an exoplanet observation telescope developed by the University of Bern, CHEOPS (CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite) was subjected to vibration tests at Ruag Space in Zurich.

This is his last visit to Switzerland before its launch in what is the first mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) to be placed under Swiss command. In total, more than a hundred researchers and engineers from eleven countries participate in the mission.

The satellite will now be sent to the Netherlands and then to Spain for further testing. It will arrive in French Guiana in early 2019, where it will be launched by a Soyuz rocket in the first half of next year. CHEOPS will be placed in orbit 700 km around the earth.

A ceremony marked on Monday in Zurich the presentation of 2700 drawings of children from ESA member countries to be boarded in the space aboard the satellite.

Chosen from 8000 drawings sent from all over Europe, they were engraved on titanium plates in a version 1000 times smaller than the original. A technique developed by a Bern University of Applied Sciences made this tour de force possible.

The ceremony took place in the presence of Federal Councilor Johann Schneider-Ammann. The Minister of the Economy stressed the importance of the space sector for Switzerland as a scientific, economic and innovation center.