A large cargo ship named VAARWEL, painted in blue and white, is sailing through a canal. The ship has a flag at its front and is passing under an open drawbridge in the background. The canal is lined with trees on both sides, and the sky above is bright blue with scattered white clouds. A few people are visible on the bridge and near the water’s edge. In the foreground, at the bottom right, a small boat with a single person inside floats near the ship.
A large green truck from Kübler Spedition is transporting a massive container wrapped in a protective tarp. The container displays several logos and text, including the logo of the European Space Agency (ESA), indicating it is part of a specialised transport operation. In the background, there is an industrial building with large metal silos under a blue sky.
In a cleanroom environment, two individuals wearing blue lab coats and hairnets are working around a large spacecraft. The spacecraft is covered in protective plastic sheeting and mounted on a white transport platform labelled with technical instructions.
In a cleanroom environment, a group of engineers wearing protective coats, gloves, and face masks are working on a large spacecraft component. The component is mounted on a white wheeled platform. The top of the spacecraft carries 26 cylindrical cameras. The workspace is surrounded by structural supports and white fabric walls, creating a clean and controlled environment.
Welcome, Plato! 🤗
On 1 September, the spacecraft arrived in the Netherlands by boat from Germany via the Rhine River.
In the coming weeks, engineers will add the sunshield & solar arrays and carry out tests to confirm Plato is ready for launch 🚀
www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭 #Exoplanets
![This image shows an X-ray view of interstellar comet 3I ATLAS, captured by ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft. At the centre of the image, a bright red spot stands out against a dark background, like a fiery beacon. Starting from this core, faint gradients of purple and blue spread outward, creating a slightly rotated rectangular frame, divided by a thin horizontal line. The red colour shows low-energy X-rays, blue marks empty space with very few X-rays. A yellow arrow labelled “Sun” points left, indicating the comet’s orientation in the Solar System. At the bottom right, a scale marker reads “5 arcmin”, providing a sense of spatial dimension.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:p5h5ai6lj6bc53b7mmvy3rf2/bafkreicot2eitpk5sa6jclrhzqsrrpa5dxwb7dwomik2zs66b3ye37jst4)
