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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An international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. These stars provide compelling new evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole. View the full article
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Video: 00:02:06 Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6 powered into space on 9 July 2024 from a newly built dedicated launch pad in French Guiana. Liftoff occurred at 16:00 local time (20:00 BST, 21:00 CEST). Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6 powered Europe into space taking with it a varied selection of experiments, satellites, payload deployers and reentry demonstrations that represent thousands across Europe, from students to industry and experienced space actors. This inaugural flight, designated VA262, is a demonstration flight to show the capabilities and prowess of Ariane 6 in escaping Earth's gravity and operating in space. Nevertheless, it had several passengers on bo…
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Video: 00:45:00 Replay of the press conference held in Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana with ESA, ArianeGroup, CNES and Arianespace representatives providing updates on the first mission of Ariane 6. Access all the replays from the launch event. Access all the launch campaign footage in broadcast quality. View the full article
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Video: 00:04:02 Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6 powered Europe into space taking with it a varied selection of experiments, satellites, payload deployers and reentry demonstrations that represent thousands across Europe, from students to industry and experienced space actors. This inaugural flight, designated VA262, is a demonstration flight to show the capabilities and prowess of Ariane 6 in escaping Earth's gravity and operating in space. Nevertheless, it had several passengers on board. Ariane 6 was built by prime contractor and design authority ArianeGroup. In addition to the rocket, the liftoff demonstrated the functioning of the launch pad and operations on g…
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Video: 03:04:20 Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6 powered Europe into space taking with it a varied selection of experiments, satellites, payload deployers and reentry demonstrations that represent thousands across Europe, from students to industry and experienced space actors. This inaugural flight, designated VA262, is a demonstration flight to show the capabilities and prowess of Ariane 6 in escaping Earth's gravity and operating in space. Nevertheless, it had several passengers on board. Ariane 6 was built by prime contractor and design authority ArianeGroup. In addition to the rocket, the liftoff demonstrated the functioning of the launch pad and operations on g…
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Image: Ariane 6 launches to the sky on 9 July 2024. Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, it is designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – will provide Europe with greater efficiency and possibility as it can launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight, while its upper stage will deorbit itself at the end of mission. View the full article
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Image: Launch of Ariane 6 VA262 on 9 July 2024 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. This is Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, designed to provide greater power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – will provide Europe with greater efficiency and possibility as it can launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight, while its upper stage will be able to deorbit itself at the end of missions. View the full article
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Image: Ariane 6 launches to the sky on 9 July 2024. Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, it is designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – will provide Europe with greater efficiency and possibility as it can launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight, while its upper stage will deorbit itself at the end of mission. View the full article
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Image: Ariane 6 launches to the sky on 9 July 2024. Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, it is designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – will provide Europe with greater efficiency and possibility as it can launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight, while its upper stage will deorbit itself at the end of mission. View the full article
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Video: 00:14:53 In the second episode of this docu series, we take a closer look into what it took to build ESA’s Young Professional Satellite (YPSat). YPSat’s mission objectives are to capture the key moments of Ariane 6’s inaugural flight and take in-orbit pictures of Earth and space. To achieve this, the satellite requires the multiple sub-systems to work in harmony and adhere to a pre-defined mission sequence. This episode zooms in four of the sub-systems: the Wake-Up System (WUS), Battery, On-Board Computer (OBC) and Telecommunications. Running at ultra low power, the WUS circuit board was designed, tested and manufactured specifically for YPSat. Created to m…
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Video: 00:02:54 On Saturday 29 June, thousands of visitors made their way to ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT), as part of the very first ESA open day to be held in the UK. ECSAT is located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire and the ESA open day formed part of the campus-wide Harwell open week. The open day, hosted by ESA’s Magali Vaissiere Conference Centre, featured fascinating talks and activities that enabled people to experience first-hand how ESA is pushing the boundaries of exploration and using space to improve life on Earth. It also showcased the many career and learning opportunities in…
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Week in images: 01-05 July 2024 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
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Video: 00:05:13 Ariane 6 is the newest rocket in a series that has, for five decades, been launching Europe towards the stars. Building on all the knowledge, expertise and technology developed over the years, Ariane 6 will be versatile, modular, and European. Guaranteeing Europe’s access to space for the next years, Ariane 6 in two versions, with either two or four boosters attached depending on the ‘oomph’ the mission requires. Versatile, its upper stage can reignite multiple times during a single flight, placing any spacecraft into any orbit – including constellations – saving a final boost to return and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Modular, it will be continu…
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Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured a rare, cloud-free image over the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira in the North Atlantic Ocean. View the full article
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Image: Webb admires bejewelled ring View the full article
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ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter, the first spacecraft that will rendezvous and capture an object around another planet, passed a key milestone to bring the first Mars samples back to Earth. View the full article
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Image: Ariane 6 first flight timeline View the full article
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Offering a foretaste of what’s to come once it is fully commissioned, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has returned the first images from its broadband radiometer instrument. These initial images offer a tantalising glimpse into the intricacies of our planet’s energy balance – a delicate balance that governs our climate. View the full article
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Image: Eye test for lunar impact surveyor View the full article
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Image: Ariane 6 first passengers View the full article
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A network of ground stations around the world, including two owned by ESA, will track the debut flight of Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket. They will monitor key phases of the flight and gather telemetry and video that will be used to analyse the rocket’s performance and optimise future launches. View the full article
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Video: 00:02:05 Space weather can affect satellites in orbit, trigger geomagnetic storms on Earth and interfere with ground infrastructure. We need to understand it better, and the best way to do that is look at where it comes from. The Sun’s corona, its upper atmospheric layer, gives rise to the solar wind and is where coronal mass ejections are spawned: massive outward explosions of charged plasma. ESA’s Proba-3 double-satellite mission will use formation flying to open up sustained coronal views. Mimicking a total solar eclipse, one satellite will block out the fiery face of the Sun by casting a shadow onto the other. This means the mission can observe the fin…
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