The Sky

 SMILE will observe the interactions between the solar wind and the magnetosphere of the earth.

EUCLID will observe a very large number of galaxies in order to analyze the dark matter and dark energy that represent about 95% of the total energy of the universe.

PLATO to be launched in 2026 to observe, like CoRoT, the natural oscillations of stars that allow to have access  to the interior structure of the stars and the exoplanets

To be launched in 2028, will observe, in the visible and IR, the atmospheres of  exoplanets with very high resolution. We are responsible of the construction and tests of the telescope within an international team.

Will be launched in 2022 and will reach its goal, Jupiter and three of its planets, in 2030. We are working since quite some time to the tests of solar panels that will equip that satellite i.e. submitting them to rapid and large temperature variations.

To be launched in 2028; it will be the successor of XMM-Newton and will observe stellar objects in the X-rays.  CSL did the conception, construction and tests of the opening cylinder of the instrument X-IFU.

The European project PROBA 3 is  a tandem of  two satellites flying at about 150 m the one from the other. CSL develop a coronagraph, ASPIICS, that will take place on the second satellite

CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOplanets Satellite) is the first Small Mission  of the ESA Cosmic Vision science programme. The objective  is to observe known exoplanets and to determine with high accuracy their size and mass.

Will be launched in 2020. It will get 3.5 times nearer to the sun than the earth and make observations of the sun and of the corona. It will also allow to observe the solar poles, very rarely observed. We were responsible for the conception, bulding and tests of an instrument called EUI.

PSP is an American probe launched on August 12, 2018. That is a “première” as it will pass many times very near to the sun at about 7 solar radius i.e. 25 times nearer to the sun than the earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope  is a 6.5 m space telescope, successor of Hubble, to be launched soon. We largely contributed to the construction and to the tests of MIRI, an IR spectrophotometer, ready in 2011.

Launched in 2011 ; it reached its goal, Jupiter, in 2016 after a very long flight. The instrument UVS, on board JUNO, a UV spectrometer to observe the aurorae of Jupiter has been partly built and tested at CSL.

Launched in 2013 ; it is the successor of Hipparcos and measures  the characteristics of billions of stars. We made long tests of the PayLoad Module of Gaia as well as of some of its very complex mirrors

Launched with Herschel in 2009 ; it observed  the well-known cosmic microwave background radiation, first radiation that came out of the universe some 400000 years after  the Big-Bang, about 13 to 14 billions years ago.

CSL tested the telescope of Herschel, the largest telescope ever launched with a diameter of 3.5 m (Hubble 2.4 m). A new facility had to be build, FOCAL 6.5, in order to proceed to the very low temperature and very long tests, many months, of that telescope.

European satellite observes stellar objects in the gamma rays since 2002 ; we contributed to the construction and tests of the Optical Monitoring Camera (OMC).

French satellite, observed from 2006 to 2012 the natural oscillations (asteroseismology) of a large number of stars as well as a large number of exoplanets; this needed very long observations, sometimes more than 5 months of a given field of stars. The baffle build and tested under our responsibility was a very basic and important part of that satellite

A small European satellite installed on a Belgian plateform, observes the sun in various wavelengths since 2009 : we largely participated in the construction and tests of 3 instruments: ESP, Lyra and SWAP. UV images of the solar corona made by SWAP are displayed in the entrance hall of CS