Advancing UK Aerospace, Defence, Security & Space Solutions Worldwide
  • Home
  • /
  • Space
  • /
  • Airbus-built telescope for ESA’s Euclid mission takes shape

Space

Airbus-built telescope for ESA’s Euclid mission takes shape

The Euclid mission is taking shape in Airbus cleanrooms: engineers are now finishing assembly of the telescope, the main instrument of the Payload Module, for which Airbus is responsible within this European Space Agency (ESA) mission led by Thales Alenia Space (TAS) as industrial prime contractor.

Above: Euclid´s full silicon carbide primary structure.
Copyright Airbus

The Euclid Payload Module contains the largest telescope with such optical performance ever designed and integrated by Airbus.
 
After mounting the truss on the base plate, both made of silicon carbide, Airbus is now completing the final phase of integration: the optical alignment. The telescope will then be sent to Thales Alenia Space, where it will go through further testing and be integrated with the platform.
 
The whole payload integration necessitates extreme clean room discipline with a perfect cleanliness, temperature stability and lack of vibration. For example, during the mechanical assembly, precision of operations is calculated in µm, where for the optical alignment, the scale of precision is in nm (1 million nm in a millimetre).
 
Giuseppe Racca, project manager of Euclid at ESA said: “Euclid is the second “Medium Class” mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme. With the ultimate goal to understand the origin of the Universe’s accelerating expansion, Euclid will map the geometry of the dark universe with unprecedented accuracy. To achieve that, we need the best team effort from 16 countries, mainly in Europe and America, hundreds of laboratories, etc. A true universal team for unlocking the secrets of the Universe.”
 
Euclid will collect high resolution images of the sky by pointing the spacecraft to a new field in deep space once every 80 minutes. Within six years of observation, covering more than one third of the entire sky, Euclid will measure the shapes of, and distances to, more than 1 billion galaxies.
 
“This telescope is the most complex we’ve ever designed and built. It must operate in extremely cold conditions of 100 Kelvin (- 170°C), relying on Airbus’ world-leading expertise in silicon carbide technology for space – already proven in orbit on ESA’s Herschel and Gaia missions,” said Philippe Pham, Head of Earth Observation, Navigation and Science at Airbus.
 
The Euclid Payload Module has three primary features, the main telescope, a 1.2m diameter mirror and a three-mirror Korsch telescope. The main telescope is made entirely of  lightweight silicon carbide (SiC) which gives it excellent thermal stability and enables operation at 130 K (-140°C), making it invisible to near infrared wavelengths.

Advertisement
Teledyne

The 1.2 metre mirror permits diffraction-limited observation of galaxies as faint as magnitude 24.5, while the Korsch telescope supplies light to its two scientific instruments, the Visible Imager (VIS), and the Near-Infrared Spectrophotometer (NISP).

The VIS & NISP instruments are maintained in a very cold environment, at 155 K (-115°C) for the VIS focal plane and 90 K (-180°C) for the NISP one, while the VIS electronics have to be maintained at 290 K (20°C).
 
The VIS & NISP instruments are developed by the Euclid Consortium and delivered to Airbus and Thales Alenia Space by ESA.

Advertisement
DSEI 2025


 

Bright Ascension launches strategic plan with new leadership team

Space

Bright Ascension launches strategic plan with new leadership team

14 July 2025

Bright Ascension Ltd has announced the appointment of a new CEO and the launch of its five-year strategic plan.

Pulsar Fusion set to conduct UK

Space

Pulsar Fusion set to conduct UK's first fusion space test

10 July 2025

Bletchley-based company Pulsar Fusion is set to become the first British company to test fusion propulsion hardware in space, with the technology having the potential to halve journey times to Mars and beyond.

ALL.SPACE unveils Hydra MAX

Defence Space

ALL.SPACE unveils Hydra MAX

10 July 2025

ALL.SPACE has revealed a major advancement in mobile satellite communications with the successful demonstration of Hydra MAX - the first network independent terminal of its kind to deliver ultra wideband communications to multiple satellites simultaneously.

Neo Space acquires UP42 from Airbus Defence and Space

Space

Neo Space acquires UP42 from Airbus Defence and Space

10 July 2025

Saudi Arabia's Neo Space Group (NSG) announced today that the company has completed its previously announced acquisition of UP42 GmbH, the Earth Observation (EO) platform previously owned by Airbus Defence and Space.

Advertisement
ODU RT
GKN Aerospace and ArianeGroup sign new Ariane 6 contract

Space

GKN Aerospace and ArianeGroup sign new Ariane 6 contract

9 July 2025

GKN Aerospace and ArianeGroup have signed a new Frame Contract for the operational phase of Ariane 6, securing Europe’s access to space for years to come and building on a partnership spanning over five decades.

Orbex pre-selected for European Launcher Challenge

Space

Orbex pre-selected for European Launcher Challenge

8 July 2025

Orbex, the UK-based orbital launch services company, has been pre-selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to take part in its prestigious European Launcher Challenge (ELC).

Advertisement
Teledyne