ESA SPACE TELESCOPE CHEOPS LAUNCHED WITH IBERESPACIO (ARQUIMEA at present) THERMAL BLANKETS

The European Space Agency CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite, named Cheops, was successfully launched on 18^th December 2019 from Kourou on board a Soyuz VS23. Cheops will study already known extrasolar planets in order to evaluate they mass, density, composition and formation.

IberEspacio (ARQUIMEA at present) has contributed to the mission with the manufacture and integration of all the platform MLIs that cover the satellite for reducing heat loss by thermal radiation. The satellite has dimensions of approximately 1.5 × 1.5 × 1.5 m and a hexagonal base structure. The bus of the CHEOPS spacecraft is based on the SEOSAT platform and will have a operation life of 3,5 years.