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Alcatel delivers Corotel telescope to French space agency for COROT stellar observation satellite

14 December 2004

Alcatel Space, a subsidiary of Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), has delivered the Corotel telescope to the National Institute for Sciences of the Universe (INSU), on behalf of French space agency CNES. The telescope will be mounted on the Corot satellite, which is designed to study the inside of stars and look for new planets.

CNES, prime contractor for the instrument, will now be able to integrate the telescope with its baffle and carry out tests in conjunction with the vehicle equipment bay. The complete payload will then be sent back to Alcatel Space's clean rooms for assembly on the Proteus platform and final integration of the entire satellite. This delivery marks a major milestone in this prestigious program, for which scientific coordination is provided by the Space Research and Astrophysics Instrumentation Laboratory and the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory.

The Corot scientific mission is a world first. Its primary objective is to study the internal structure of stars using the astroseismology technique (observation of oscillation modes, enabling an indirect look at the stars' cores). During a mission lasting nearly three years, the Corot satellite will study the internal structure of hundreds of stars to determine their mass, age and composition. This is an essential step in helping us better understand the universe, since its constituent chemical elements are formed in the stars at different stages of their life.

The Corot mission has another objective as well, namely the detection of extra-solar planets, by measuring changes in luminous intensity. Scientists hope to find from 10 to 40 medium-size telluric planets (i.e., planets like the Earth with a rocky, and not gaseous structure, that could conceivably sustain life), similar to those in the solar system. They also hope to find hundreds indeed thousands of giant planets.

Alcatel Space is supplying the Corotel afocal telescope for this mission, drawing on experience built up in the Helios observation program, especially to meet demanding telescope stability requirements. This is the first spaceborne instrument to offer such a high degree of radiometric accuracy, with sensitivity to 10-6. Corotel also offers extensive protection against stray light (from the Sun or Earth), which should enable it, for the first time, to detect Earth-size planets around other stars. In addition, by making very fine measurements of changes in stars' luminosity, it will provide invaluable information on their cores.

" We are very proud to deliver the Corotel instrument to CNES, who chose us for a pivotal role in this ambitious scientific program that will expand our knowledge of the universe," said Alcatel Space Chairman and CEO Pascale Sourisse. "We deployed our extensive expertise in optical engineering, along with the high-technology solutions needed for this type of mission. Above all, we are very satisfied with having risen to the heady challenge of giving the scientific community access to space capabilities at a very reasonable cost."

Corot will be placed into polar orbit at an altitude of about 900 kilometers. It will have an inertial attitude, with the line-of-sight maintaining the same direction for an observation period of five months. The whole mission comprises at least six observation periods over three years. Launch of the Corot satellite is planned for 2006.