European Space Agency
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200
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Discover where space begins: the guide to ESA’s establishments View the full article
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ESA's Prospect package, including drill and a miniaturised laboratory, will fly to the Moon’s South Polar region in search of volatiles, including water ice, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. View the full article
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Video: 00:52:00 The Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite is set for liftoff on 4 September on the last Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This recording is of a media briefing held on 29 August 2024 to offer journalists the possibility to learn more about the Sentinel-2 mission and the last flight of Vega, Europe’s nimble rocket specialising in launching small scientific and Earth observation spacecraft such as to sun-synchronous polar orbits, following the Sun. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B, flying in the same orbit but 180° apart to optimise coverage and revisit …
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Video: 00:01:23 On 19–20 August 2024, Juice successfully completed a world-first lunar-Earth flyby, with flight controllers guiding the spacecraft first past the Moon, then past Earth. The gravity of the two changed Juice’s speed and direction, sending it on a shortcut to Jupiter via Venus. The closest approach to the Moon was at 23:15 CEST on 19 August, deflecting Juice towards a closest approach to Earth just over 24 hours later at 23:56 CEST on 20 August. In the hours before and after both close approaches, Juice’s two monitoring cameras captured photos, giving us a unique ‘Juice eye view’ of our home planet. Juice’s two monitoring cameras provide black-and-whi…
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Image: Sentinel-2C in the Vega launch tower View the full article
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Image: Webb peeks into Perseus View the full article
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On 8 September 2024, the first of four Cluster satellites will return home and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere in an uncontrolled ‘targeted reentry’ over a remote area of the South Pacific Ocean. In the nearly 70 years of spaceflight about 10 000 intact satellites and rocket bodies have reentered the atmosphere. Yet we still lack a clear view on what actually happens during a reentry. An airborne observation experiment will now attempt to witness the ‘Salsa’ (Cluster 2) reentry. Scientists onboard a small plane will try to collect rare data on how and when a satellite breaks up, which can be used to make satellite reentries safer and more sustainable in the future. V…
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This is ESA: your perfect introduction to what Europe does in space View the full article
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ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has provided crucial data to answer the decades-long question of where the energy comes from to heat and accelerate the solar wind. Working in tandem with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter reveals that the energy needed to help power this outflow is coming from large fluctuations in the Sun’s magnetic field. View the full article
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Week in images: 19-23 August 2024 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
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Since ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) flew by the Moon and Earth earlier this week, we’ve seen images from its monitoring cameras and we’ve seen images from its navigation camera. Today we reveal the first images from its scientific camera, JANUS, designed to take detailed, high-resolution photos of Jupiter and its icy moons. View the full article
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As preparations continue to launch the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite on 4 September, the team at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, has bid farewell to their precious satellite as it was sealed from view within the Vega rocket fairing. View the full article
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On 8 September 2024, the first of four satellites that make up ESA’s Cluster mission will reenter Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area. This marks the end of the historic mission, over 24 years after it was sent into space to measure Earth’s magnetic environment. Though the remaining three satellites will also stop making scientific observations, discoveries using existing mission data are expected for years to come. This ‘targeted reentry’ is the first of its kind. ESA’s efforts to ensure a clean end to the Cluster mission go beyond international standards, making the agency a world-leader in sustainable space exploration. View the full artic…
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The European Service Module that will power the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis III mission to the Moon is soon on its way to the United States. View the full article
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Launched in May, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has been making waves, with the first images from three of its scientific instruments already delivered. Now, the spotlight is firmly on the atmospheric lidar, the most advanced of the satellite’s four instruments. This cutting-edge sensor has captured detailed 20 km-high vertical profiles of atmospheric aerosols – tiny particles and droplets from natural sources like wildfires, dust, and sea spray, and from human activities like industrial emissions or burning of wood – and clouds across various regions of the globe. View the full article
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ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) has successfully completed a world-first lunar-Earth flyby, using the gravity of Earth to send it Venus-bound, on a shortcut to Jupiter through the inner Solar System. View the full article
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Image: Juice snaps Moon en route to Earth View the full article
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Video: 00:09:15 ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) returns to Earth on 19–20 August 2024, to complete the world's first Lunar-Earth gravity assist. Flight controllers will guide the spacecraft past the Moon and then Earth itself, ‘braking’ the spacecraft. This manoeuvre may seem counterintuitive but will allow Juice to take a shortcut via Venus on it's way to Jupiter. Juice has already travelled more than 1000 million km to the giant planet but it still has a long way to go even though Jupiter is on average ‘just’ 800 million km away from Earth. Join us as we explain why Juice's journey to Jupiter is taking sooo long. Read more. View the full article
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Image: Sentinel-2C fully loaded View the full article
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Φsat-2, ESA’s groundbreaking cubesat designed to revolutionise Earth observation with artificial intelligence, has launched. The cubesat embarked on its journey into space on 16 August at 20:56 CEST (11:56 local time) on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US, integrated by Exolaunch as part of the Transporter-11 rideshare mission, which also included ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite. View the full article
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ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite has been launched, paving the way for a potential constellation of satellites that would provide more frequent data not only to enhance short-term weather forecasts for Arctic nations, but for the world as a whole. View the full article
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ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite and Φsat-2 missions are ready for lift-off from Vandenburg, California, with a target launch date of 16 August 2024. View the full article
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How the Moon shaped our world: discover our interactive publication View the full article
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Image: Firefighters in Greece are battling a rapidly spreading wildfire that has swept across several neighbourhoods in Athens, Greece, on Monday. Thousands of residents have been evacuated as the massive fire reached the suburbs of Athens, with some flames reaching heights of 25 m. This image shows the fires surrounding Athens on 12 August 2024, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. This image has been processed in a way that highlights vegetation in red, while the burned areas can be seen in black. The estimated affected area exceeds 100 sq km. In response to the fires, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service was activated to cover the fire event affecti…
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Video: 00:04:38 The effects of the climate crisis are felt more acutely in the Arctic than anywhere else on the planet. The weather in the Arctic is not only severe, but it changes extremely quickly. More frequent data are urgently needed to improve weather forecasts for this susceptible polar region. Enter ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite: a brand new prototype mission to show exactly how this can be achieved. The satellite will provide precise, short-term weather forecasts for the Arctic region. It is equipped with a 19-channel cross-track scanning microwave radiometer which will provide high-resolution humidity and temperature soundings of the atmosphere in all w…
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