Space News & Blog Articles

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Immerse yourself in 360° of science with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer as he prepares an experiment to examine how human cells behave in weightlessness.

Image: Rolling stones on Mars

Week in images: 10 - 14 January 2022

Plato, ESA’s next-generation planet hunting mission, has been given the green light to continue with its development after the critical milestone review concluded successfully on 11 January 2022.

The Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of Greenland’s largest tidewater outlet glaciers, is pictured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. Meaning ‘large fjord’ in Greenlandic, the Kangerlussuaq Glacier flows into the head of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord, the second largest fjord in east Greenland.

Image: Solar power, going down

The Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor, or ASIM for short, is a first-of-its-kind complement of instruments on the International Space Station. Dubbed the ‘space storm hunter’, ASIM measures electric events in Earth’s upper atmosphere with cameras, photometers and X- and gamma-ray detectors. 

Modern society is growing ever-more reliant on services and data delivered via space. Cyber threats and disruptions to satellites are increasingly dangerous to citizens and economies, and it is vital to protect them and the crucial work they do. This is why ESA is supporting Swiss-based security firm Cysec in organising Europe’s first live cybersecurity demonstration for space systems. The demonstration will highlight the challenges in making space systems cybersecurity resilient vs modern hacking techniques and capabilities.

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As always, a new year brings new and exciting missions and launches for ESA. In science the world looks forward to the first image releases of the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and the third data release for Gaia, both teaching us more about our galaxy and Universe. ESA’s new Mars rover will be launched with the ExoMars mission, and we will also see the maiden flight of Vega-C and the Artemis I flight. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will return to the ISS for her second mission and a new class of astronauts will be presented to the world. After the groundwork has been laid in 2021, a new Ministerial Council Meeting will gather to look at the future of ESA, and the need for ESA and Europe to accelerate space and integrated space technology into the fabric of our lives.

A contract signed with Arianespace secures the joint launch for two satellites that will further knowledge of our home planet. Scheduled to lift off on a new class of rocket, ESA’s Vega-C, from Europe’s Spaceport in mid-2025, FLEX will yield new information about the health of the world’s plants and Altius will deliver profiles of ozone and other trace gases in the upper atmosphere to support services such as weather forecasting.

ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed that an exoplanet orbiting its host star within a day has a deformed shape more like that of a rugby ball than a sphere. This is the first time that the deformation of an exoplanet has been detected, offering new insights into the internal structure of these star-hugging planets.

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Join ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer inside Kibo, the Japanese laboratory module of the International Space Station in 360°, setting up Astrobee robotic free-flyers for the ReSWARM experiment, short for RElative Satellite sWArming and Robotic Maneuvering. The robotics demonstration tests autonomous microgravity motion planning and control for on-orbit assembly and coordinated motion.

Today the James Webb Space Telescope team successfully fully deployed its iconic 6.4-metre, gold-coated primary mirror, completing the final stage of all major spacecraft deployments to prepare for science operations.

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Tour the new launch complex for Ariane 6 at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

Another year passes, and our muscles, bones, eyes and ears deteriorate as we age – even more so in space. Reactions in ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer’s body after barely two months on the International Space Station are giving European scientists clues on how to fight the downsides of growing old on Earth.

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s sunshield in space, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations.

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s sunshield in space, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations.

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Experience an orbital badminton match on the International Space Station ISS in 360° as ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer challenges his crewmates and Japanese spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano.

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This real-time video shows the separation of the James Webb Space Telescope from the Ariane 5 launch vehicle and the subsequent solar array deployment.

After a successful launch of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope on 25 December, and completion of two mid-course correction manoeuvres, the Webb team has analysed its initial trajectory and determined the observatory should have enough propellant to allow support of science operations in orbit for significantly more than a 10-year lifetime (the minimum baseline for the mission is five years).

From simulated moondust to an ultraflat floor, a 3D-printed human bone to a wall decoration that once flew on the Hubble Space Telescope, the new 99 Objects of ESA ESTEC website gives visitors a close-up view of intriguing, often surprising artefacts assembled together to tell the story of ESA’s technical heart.