French Planet Hunting Satellite to launch Late 2006

Just ran across this story on Phsyorg.com

www.physorg.com...

COROT, due for launch in late 2006, will be the first spacecraft devoted to the search for rocky planets, similar to our own Earth. It will look for the tiny drop in light caused by a planet as it slips across the face of its parent star. COROT is a CNES mission with ESA participation. Credits: CNES/D.Ducros

This article is poorly written but from what I gather, the satellite has already been launch or will launch soon. If anyone can confirm this has been launched please post it below.

Bearing a 30-centimetre (12-inch) telescope and two cameras, Corot is designed to hunt for "rocky" planets -- the first requirement, along with liquid water and a moderate temperature, for life as we know it.

Corot, pronounced "Coreau," is due to lift off on Wednesday aboard a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

The 170-million-euro (221-million-dollar) mission, 75-percent funded by France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), should open up a new front in the search for extrasolar planets.

Nice budget project for what it's designed to do. The next craft to go up that is designed for this purpose will be the US funded craft called Kepler, which will launch in 2008.

[edit on 24-12-2006 by sardion2000]

I did some checking and it seems like they are getting ready to launch soon.

smsc.cnes.fr...

Here is the latest news. It seems they are launching from Baikonour. Here's hoping for a successful launch!

www.spacedaily.com...

Another link.

Very cool, Sardion'.
I'll second your wish for a successful launch.
Always nice to see other Countries of the world, taking an interest in unlocking the secrets of the universe.

I'm gonna have to go check your links again, I think I missed how soon, if successful, we may start seeing results.

Also wanted to alert readers to a related link, at the bottom of the page, of your link to spacedaily.com

Extremely Large Telescope

Although this proposed telescope is ground based, the technological advancements proposed, sound comparably exciting.

The present concept, estimated to cost around 800 million euro, features as a baseline a 42-m diameter segmented mirror telescope housed in an 80-m diameter rotating dome. It incorporates a large internal mirror able to distort its own shape a thousand times per second. This 'Adaptive Optics' system will help to provide robust telescope operation even in case of significant wind turbulence and will largely overcome the fuzziness of stellar images due to atmospheric turbulence.

Hopefully we're in for some amazing discoveries, over the next few years.

Ah, thanks , s'

Looked everywhere and couldn't find anything definative.

Not really sure what is meant by 'scientific data use'.

Surely the public will see some findings before 2009?

Well it looks like it should be launching tomorrow. Should be interesting once thing thing starts looking for planets.

Another article on the subject.
www.space.com...

And jumping off from your link jra,
we find

'Dawn' and 'Kepler',

the next in a line of cheaper missions from NASA's Discovery Program.

NASA selected these missions from 26 proposals made in early
2001. The missions must stay within the Discovery Program's
development-cost cap of about $299 million.

and

The Discovery Program emphasizes lower-cost, highly focused
scientific missions. The past Discovery missions are NEAR
Shoemaker, Mars Pathfinder and Lunar Prospector, all of which
successfully completed their missions.

ftp.hq.nasa.gov...

Dawn designed to gather info on Vesta and Ceres,

two giant asteroids in our solar system,
and
Kepler, another space telescope, in the vein of Corot,

but designed to search for planets around stars
closer in size to the Sun.

I think I'm liking this cheaper but more numerous idea, that is
the Discovery Program.

I ain't gettin' any younger , so the more and sooner the better for me.

So did they launch today? off to check...oops, that's tomorrow

[edit on 26-12-2006 by Jbird]

Thats it launched on BBC news right now.
Good hunting!
(taken from bbc website)
"Corot blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1423 GMT, carried into a polar orbit on a Soyuz-2-1b vehicle."

Oops edited for blatant wrongness of information lol .

[edit on 27-12-2006 by Scotlandshope]

Here's a little more info

During the Soyuz 2-1b's flight, its re-ignitable Fregat upper stage made two burns to carry COROT to its circular polar orbit. The propulsion system's initial firing was followed by a coast phase of approximately 35 minutes. A second Fregat burn was performed, with COROT then deployed from the upper stage.

www.starsem.com...

A successful 50 minute flight, from Kazakhstan, with the help of the Soyuz 2-1b's improved third stage engine and digital control system.

yup its gone

its exciting! NASA isnt gonna launch planet hunter till like 2020

Originally posted by grapesofwrath
yup its gone

its exciting! NASA isnt gonna launch planet hunter till like 2020

Actually NASA will be launching the Kepler Space Observatory In 2008.

EDIT: It looks like you were thinking of the ESA's Darwin telescope which is planned for sometime around 2020.

[edit on 2-1-2007 by jra]