NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

PLATO (Exoplanet Telescope)

Launch Time
NET September, 2026

Rocket

Ariane 62
Image Credit: Arianespace
Arianespace
Status: Planned
Price: $88.0 million
Liftoff Thrust: 8,370 kN
Payload to LEO: 10,350 kg
Payload to GTO: 5,000 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 2
Rocket Height: 63.0 m
Fairing Diameter: 5.4 m
Fairing Height: 20.0 m

Mission Details

PLATO (Exoplanet Telescope)

PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is a space telescope under development by the European Space Agency. The mission goals are to search for planetary transits across up to one million stars and to discover and characterize rocky extrasolar planets around yellow dwarf stars (like our sun), subgiant stars, and red dwarf stars. The emphasis of the mission is on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars where water can exist in a liquid state. It is the third medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and is named after the influential Greek philosopher Plato, the founding figure of Western philosophy, science, and mathematics. A secondary objective of the mission is to study stellar oscillations or seismic activity in stars to measure stellar masses and evolution and to enable the precise characterization of the planet's host star, including its age.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 2,100.0 kg
Sun–Earth L2

Location

ELA-4, Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana, France