European Space Agency celebrates the 30th anniversary of the ISO mission launch

On November 17, ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) hosted a commemorative event marking the 30th anniversary of the European ISO (Infrared Space Observatory) mission, which GMV attended in recognition of its contribution to the mission’s development.

“The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) satellite will be the world’s first space-based astronomical observatory operating at infrared wavelengths,” stated ESA Bulletin No. 67 in 1991. Four years later, from Kourou, ESA launched its first major space telescope designed to observe the universe in infrared.

Operated by ESA in collaboration with the JAXA and NASA space agencies, the mission continued until May 16, 1998. ISO was the most sensitive space observatory ever launched for studying the universe in infrared, thanks to the four instruments it carried on board: an infrared camera (ISOCAM), a photopolarimeter (ISOPHOT), a short-wavelength spectrometer (SWS), and a long-wavelength spectrometer (LWS). 

GMV participated in this historic mission by developing the ground control system and the flight dynamics system, as well as providing operational support from VILSPA (the predecessor of ESAC) in Villafranca del Castillo. Its work ensured the continuous availability and maintenance of ISO’s ground control system.

ISO carried out around 30,000 scientific observations that transformed our understanding of the cosmos, ushering in a new era of infrared astronomy, and its data continue to be analyzed three decades later.