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Born in France in 1982, Sophie Adenot is an engineer, helicopter test pilot and colonel in the French Air and Space Force. Selected as an ESA astronaut in 2022, she completed her basic training at the European Astronaut Centre in 2024 and launched to the International Space Station on 13 February 2026 for her first mission, εpsilon.
There are only a few days left to apply for the 2026 Graduate Trainee positions at the European Space Agency. Applications close on 28 February 2026, so this is your final chance to submit your application before the deadline!
Just over a year since Smile arrived in the Netherlands in two parts, the now-complete and thoroughly-tested spacecraft has left for good. With a launch window set for 8 April – 7 May on a Vega-C rocket, the joint European-Chinese mission is almost ready to embark upon its unique space mission.
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over south-central Morocco, near the city of Ouarzazate.
For the first time, an international team of astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Using NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's NIRSpec instrument, the team observed Uranus for nearly a full rotation, detecting the faint glow from molecules high above the clouds. The results offer a new window into how ice-giant planets distribute energy in their upper layers.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing for the inaugural launch of the Celeste LEO-PNT in-orbit demonstration mission with the first two satellites scheduled to lift off no earlier than 24 March, aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Māhia Launch Complex in New Zealand.
Each year, the world’s leading climate scientists evaluate the most critical evidence on how our planet is changing. Their assessments draw heavily on data from Earth-observing satellites – and the latest report delivers a stark warning: the planet’s energy balance is drifting further out of alignment, ocean warming is now accelerating, and the land’s capacity to absorb carbon is declining, along with other troubling trends.
Earth’s river deltas, home to about 5% of the global population and some of the world’s major cities, are experiencing subsidence, which exacerbates the risks from sea-level rise. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission has captured a decade's worth of data showing land sinking faster than previously thought.
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule carrying ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, docked with the International Space Station on 14 February, at 20:15 GMT/21:15 CET, marking the official start of ESA’s εpsilon mission.
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule carrying ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, docked with the International Space Station on 14 February, at 20:15 GMT/21:15 CET, marking the official start of ESA’s εpsilon mission.
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Watch the docking operations of Crew-12 to the International Space Station (ISS), which took place on 14 February 2026 at 21:15 CET. The docking is followed by the hatch opening and the welcome remarks by the astronauts already present in the ISS.
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Watch the highlights of the launch of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot to the International Space Station (ISS) on Crew-12. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA, on Friday 13 February 2026 at 10:15 GMT/11:15 CET (5:15 local time).
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Watch the liftoff of ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot to the International Space Station (ISS), aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre. Sophie flies as mission specialist. The other Crew-12 members are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, respectively commander and pilot of the mission, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, mission specialist.
Image: For Valentine’s Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission sends love from space, capturing the heart-shaped oasis of Faiyum, just south of Cairo, Egypt.
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At 16:45 GMT/17:45 CET the first Ariane 6 rocket with four boosters lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 12 February, taking 32 Amazon Leo satellites to orbit.
Scientists used the European Space Agency's Cheops satellite to discover that the planetary system around the star LHS 1903 challenges current planet formation theories with the unusual order of its planets. Surprisingly, the most distant outer planet might be rocky and seems to have formed later – in a different environment than the other planets around the star.
The European Space Agency (ESA) will take part in the upcoming Munich Security Conference (MSC), one of the world’s leading forums for international security policy. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher will join senior political leaders, industry executives and security experts to highlight how space systems underpin Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy.
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