European Space Agency

Press Release N° 33–2020 On Tuesday, November 17, Arianespace announced the loss of the Vega VV17 mission, which was carrying two payloads, SEOSAT-Ingenio, an Earth-science observation satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of Spain's Center for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), and TARANIS for France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES). The first three stages functioned nominally until the ignition of the AVUM upper stage, eight minutes after liftoff. At that time, a degraded trajectory was detected, followed by a loss of control of the vehicle and the subsequent loss of the mission. View the full article

Video: 00:02:06 The giant A-68A iceberg could strike land this month – wreaking havoc near the waters of the South Georgia Island. Since its ‘birth’ in 2017, the iceberg has travelled thousands of kilometres from the Larsen C ice shelf, in Antarctica, and now lies around 120 km from South Georgia. If it remains on its current path, the iceberg could ground in the shallow waters offshore – threatening wildlife, including penguins and seals. Satellite missions are being used to track the berg on its journey over the past three years. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar mission, with its ability to see through clouds and the dark, has been instrumental in mapping the polar regions in winter. Video credits: Animation: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017-18), processed by Swansea University-A. Luckman Radar images: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO A-68A map: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA; Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database Sentinel-1 animations: ESA/ATG Medialab Penguin footage: Getty Images View the full article

Information for all visitors to ESA sites Coronavirus measures for hosted meetings and visitors View the full article

Meteosat Third Generation View the full article

ESA's Orion blog Updates on Artemis and the European Service Module for Orion View the full article

Copernicus Sentinel-2 View the full article

Copernicus Sentinel-1 View the full article