Space News & Blog Articles

ESA is getting ready to show thousands of visitors how space improves life on Earth at its very first open day to be held in the UK.

Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. Whether launching new satellites to look back and study Earth, peer out to deep space or test important new technologies in orbit, Ariane 6’s first flight will showcase the versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy-lift launcher. Read on for all about the RAMI deployer, then see who else is flying first.

Image: Drone test of planetary landing radar

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Proba-3 is ESA’s – and the world’s – first precision formation flying mission. A pair of satellites will fly together relative to the Sun so that one casts a precisely-controlled shadow onto the other, to create a prolonged solar eclipse in orbit. In the process the mission will open up the Sun’s faint surrounding coronal atmosphere for sustained study. Normally this corona is rendered invisible by the brilliant face of the Sun, like a firefly next to a bonfire.

A new collaboration between ESA and Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands has got passengers thinking about space. Digital screens throughout the airport featuring stunning  satellite images of Earth have been stopping travellers in their tracks. That's because these pictures from space are part of a fun Where on Earth? travel quiz.

Production of Galileo Second Generation satellites advances at full speed after two independent Satellite Critical Design Review boards have confirmed that the satellite designs of the respective industries meet all mission and performance requirements. This achievement is another crucial milestone hit on time in the ambitious schedule to develop the first 12 satellites of the Galileo Second Generation fleet.

Image: First Plato camera

ESA’s ExoMars and Mars Express missions have spotted water frost for the first time near Mars’s equator, a part of the planet where it was thought impossible for frost to exist.

Destination Earth is now live! Launched today during a ceremony at the EuroHPC LUMI Supercomputer Centre in Kajaani, Finland, Destination Earth provides unprecedented insights into the complexity of our planet to advance climate change adaption and environmental resilience modelling.

The ESA website is a key tool to help us communicate about our activities. We want to make sure that our website meets the needs and expectations of our audience. That's why we are launching a survey to collect your feedback and suggestions on how to improve the esa.int website.

PLAYMOBIL's little robot space explorer ROBert was reunited with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and ESA Kids mascot Paxi as they teamed up to meet young space fans at ESA's Space Days. Children had an absolute blast at ESA's Space Days, held at the PLAYMOBIL FunPark in Zirndorf, Germany from 30 May to 2 June 2024.

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SENER is testing the docking capabilities of the SIROM system by launching the MANTIS floating platform into an equally free-floating REACSA at ESA's Orbital Robotics Laboratory. This free-floating tests simulate the dynamics of rigid body contact and present an opportunity to gather valuable insights into the performance of SIROM in approximately 200 docking scenarios.

Week in images: 03-06 June 2024

Image: ESA and Vast memorandum signature at ILA

Image: Ahead of World Ocean Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the west of Grand Bahama Island, in the Bahamas.

Our galaxy has collided with many others in its lifetime. ESA’s Gaia space telescope now reveals that the most recent of these crashes took place billions of years later than we thought.

Following months of meticulous testing to ensure that it will deliver first-class data on air quality around the world, the new Copernicus Sentinel-5 instrument has been delivered to Airbus in France ready to be installed on the first MetOp Second Generation weather satellite.