Better in-flight streaming and video-calling might just become more accessible thanks to a project supported by the European Space Agency (ESA). Building upon the success of an experiment for a new type of antenna terminal together with ESA, Viasat – a global leader in satellite communications – now plans to commercialise its new in-flight connectivity solution called Viasat Amara.
Space News & Blog Articles
Are you ready to take your first step into the space sector? The countdown has begun for the launch of the European Space Agency's 2026 Student Internship Programme, and you could be part of it. Applications open the first week of November.
The launch campaign of the next satellite to join the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission is progressing on schedule for launch on Tuesday, 4 November, on board an Ariane 6 rocket.
Image: The changing face of the Chilean glaciers in the Laguna San Rafael National Park is featured in these satellite images from 1987 and 2024.
The European Space Agency's presence in Spain is set to be strengthened, while more than a dozen contracts with Spanish industry were signed on Thursday.
No communication or navigation, faulty electronics and collision risk. At ESA’s mission control in Darmstadt, teams faced a scenario unlike any before: a solar storm of extreme magnitude. Fortunately, this nightmare unfolded not in reality, but as part of the simulation campaign for Sentinel-1D, pushing the boundaries of spacecraft operations and space weather preparedness.
Using 11 years of magnetic field measurements from the European Space Agency’s Swarm satellite constellation, scientists have discovered that the weak region in Earth’s magnetic field over the South Atlantic – known as the South Atlantic Anomaly – has expanded by an area nearly half the size of continental Europe since 2014.
Image: This wide view of Copernicus Sentinel-3 shows Cyclone Errol heading towards the coast of Western Australia.
By fitting its sunshield and solar panels, engineers have completed the construction of Plato, the European Space Agency’s mission to discover Earth-like exoplanets. Plato is on track for the final key tests to confirm that it is fit for launch.
During recent storms, satellites recorded ocean waves averaging nearly 20 metres high – as tall as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and the largest ever measured from space. Moreover, satellite data now reveal that ocean swells act as storm ‘messengers’: even though a storm may never make landfall, its swell can travel vast distances and bring destructive energy to distant coastlines.
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission is about to get its fourth satellite. Copernicus Sentinel-1D has now undergone the checks and functional tests prior to its integration with Ariane 6, ready for launch on Tuesday, 4 November 2025.
Between 1 and 7 October, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express spacecraft turned their eyes towards interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, as it passed close to Mars.
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What a difference a year makes! Today Hera’s asteroid mission for planetary defence is cruising through deep space on the far side of the Sun, headed to its final destination: the Didymos binary asteroid system. But a year ago, on 7 October 2024, it was unsure if the mission was ever going to take off at all.
Satellite navigation is essential to everything from tracking your morning jog to landing air ambulances. But as reliance on satellite navigation grows, so do the risks associated with its interruption, natural or intentional. In its pursuit of strengthening European resilience in navigation, the European Space Agency (ESA) took part in Jammertest.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has expanded its capability to communicate with scientific, exploration and space safety missions across our Solar System with the inauguration of a new 35-m diameter deep space antenna – the fourth for Estrack, ESA’s deep space tracking network.