The first batch of European Space Agency (ESA) scientific instruments, required for the National Observatory of Athens (ESA) to participate in NASA’s PSYCHE space mission, have arrived at the Observatory’s facilities in Kryoneri, Corinthia, to be installed on recently completed purpose-built platforms by the EAA with the assistance of the Peloponnese Region.

The new building infrastructure and the installation of state-of-the-art equipment – financed by the Recovery Fund and the Peloponnese Region – turn the Kryoneri observatory into the largest space hub (Space Hub) in southeastern Europe.

The National Observatory of Athens has been selected by ESA to implement a laser optical link between the PSYCHE satellite and Earth at the amazing distance of 300 million kilometers – through the special instruments installed at the Kryoneri Observatory and the Aristarchus Telescope at Helmos.

In this context, both observatories, key research infrastructures of the Institute of Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAADET) of the National Observatory of Athens are being upgraded and equipped with state-of-the-art instruments.

It is noted that the PSYCHE mission will explore a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

As noted in a related announcement, “the initiatives of the EAA administration so far, the hard work of the management and the scientific and technical staff of the IAADET Institute of the EAA, as well as our strategic cooperation with ESA, the General Secretariat of Telecommunications and Posts and the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation, brought about these important results highlighting the EAA as a key pillar, at national and European level, in the development of new space communication technologies (broadband space network) as well as in the field of space and planetary security”.

The above developments will be presented at the EAA stand at the 88th TIF and a relevant speech will be given by the director of the IAADET Institute and vice-president of the EAA Board of Directors, Dr. Spyros Vasilakos, on Sunday September 8, at 11.30 am. at the stand of the Ministry of Development.