(4 May 2017) Tests concluded for the Cheops telescope and left Italy for Bern, Switzerland, where integration of the instrument will be completed. The Italian team delivered the telescope to the Swiss partner yesterday, as part of the European mission to study the planets of other star systems that will be launched by the end of 2018. Cheops (CHaracterizing ExOplanet Satellite) is the first of the S Class (Small) missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme, designed to accurately measure the unknown physical properties of planets in planetary systems other than our Solar System. The programme was developed with the Swiss Space Office, and is lead by the University of Bern along with 11 other European countries including Italy's contribution in designing mirrors that gather light, the optics behind the focal plane, and the integration and testing of the telescope whose mechanical structure was provided by the University of Bern. Under the guidance of ASI and INAF, the telescope was made in the laboratories of Leonardo SpA. of Florence, with the collaboration of Thales Alenia Space of Turin and Medialario of Bosisio Parini. The Italian team, including researchers from the University of Padova and the Space Science Data Centre of ASI, contributed to scientific activities necessary in identifying the requirements and verification of instrumental performance, and the preparation of data analysis. (Red)

THE TELESCOPE

The small satellite weighing 250kg will begin its mission with a launch of the Soyuz rocket from the European base of Kourou in French Guiana which will take it into a 700-km-high orbit, with an inclination of 98 °to the equator, where it will operate for least four years. The Cheops scientific payload is a very compact telescope, just over 30 cm in diameter and length, which will devote its observations to the measurement of light coming from stars whose planets have been identified by other instruments, from either the ground or space.