European Space Agency

ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite has passed its environmental test campaign with flying colours – meaning that the satellite has been declared fit for liftoff and its life in the harsh environment of space. This new satellite, which is slated for launch in June, has been designed to show how it can improve weather forecasts in the Arctic – a region that currently lacks data for accurate short-term forecasts. View the full article

The European mission control centre near Munich, Germany, is set to undergo a transformation into a Moon mission control centre, tasked with supporting operations for missions to a lunar space station, the lunar surface and beyond. View the full article

Video: 00:03:01 After more than 6 months on the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen returned to Earth, marking the end of his Huginn mission. It was his second mission to the Space Station and his first long-duration, where he was the pilot of Crew-7, which consisted of Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA), Satoshi Furukawa (JAXA), and Konstantin Borisov (Roscosmos). View the full article

View the full article

Image: NGC 5468 – Cepheid host galaxy View the full article

In just a few months, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite will be lofted into orbit to fill in a piece of the complex climate puzzle – that piece being how clouds and aerosols, small particles such as dust suspended in the air, affect Earth’s energy balance. With the climate crisis upon us, this information is needed more urgently than ever – so much so, that the science of clouds and aerosols has been prioritised by the European Commission and ESA as part of their new Earth System Science Initiative. View the full article

ESA, on behalf of the European Commission, has signed a €12 million contract with Leonardo S.p.A (Italy) and Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica to design and develop a new ultra-precise atomic clock technology for Galileo. View the full article

After more than six months on the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and the rest of Crew-7 will undock and make their way down to Earth on 11 March 2024 at 13:15 GMT/14:15 CET, splashing down off the coast the Florida on 12 March, at 09:35 GMT / 10:35 CET. Watch the undocking and splashdown on ESA WebTV. View the full article

Week in images: 04-08 March 2024 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Video: 00:04:00 Andreas Mogensen launched on his Huginn mission in August 2023 to the International Space Station, becoming the first non-US astronaut to pilot SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. Andreas became commander of the International Space Station in September 2023, becoming the longest serving European commander in January 2024. His mission was spent on more than 30 European experiments and plenty of international ones as well, ranging from water purification to studies of human physiology and thunderclouds. After 6 months on the International Space Station, Andreas will come down to Earth together with his Crew-7 crewmates Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA), Satoshi Furukawa (JAXA), and Konstantin Borisov (Roscosmos). Access the related broadcast quality video material View the full article

Video: 00:21:52 Rosemary Coogan, one of ESA’s five astronaut candidates currently undergoing basic astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, shares her journey from studying the stars to training for space travel. Join us as we discuss her experiences in astronaut training, her favorite lessons, and her excitement for the future of space exploration. This is Episode 4 of our ESA Explores podcast series introducing the ESA astronaut class of 2022, recorded in November 2023. Music and audio editing by Denzel Lorge. Cover art by Gaël Nadaud. Access all ESA Explores podcasts. View the full article

For International Women's Day 2024, we're acknowledging the remarkable careers of the women in key Directorate positions at ESA: Simonetta Cheli, Geraldine Naja and Carole Mundell. Read about the impactful work, pivotal life experiences and their insights on fostering a more inclusive future. View the full article

Image: The lush landscape of the island of Ireland and the coasts of Scotland, Wales and England, are pictured in this view from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission. View the full article

Video: 00:09:27 The upcoming Copernicus Radar Observation System for Europe in L-band (ROSE-L) will provide continuous day-and-night all-weather monitoring of Earth’s land, oceans and ice, and offer frequent observations of Earth’s surface at a high spatial resolution. ROSE-L will carry an active phased array synthetic aperture radar instrument. The radar antenna will be the largest deployable planar antenna ever built measuring an impressive 40 sq m. ROSE-L will deliver many benefits including essential information on forests and land cover, leading to improved monitoring of the terrestrial carbon cycle and carbon accounting. The mission will also greatly extend our ability to monitor minute surface displacements and helping detect geohazards. It will automatically map surface soil moisture conditions over land helping improve hydrology and weather forecasts, and support the operational monitoring of sea and land ice across the Arctic. ROSE-L is one of six Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missions that ESA is developing on behalf of the EU. The missions will expand the current capabilities of the Copernicus Space Component – the world’s biggest supplier of Earth observation data. This video features interviews with Malcolm Davidson, ROSE-L Mission Scientist, Nico Gebert, ROSE-L Payload Manager and Gianluigi Di Cosimo, ROSE-L Project Manager. Access all Unpacking Sentinels videos. View the full article

Image: ESA astronaut candidate Raphaël Liégeois from Belgium during a robotics session as part of his basic astronaut training at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre, near Cologne, Germany. View the full article

View the full article

Video: 00:03:29 After years of development and a rigorous testing programme, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has left Munich, Germany, and is now on its away to SpaceX’s launch site in Vandenberg, California. Once it arrives, it will be put into storage for a few weeks until it is time to ready the satellite for liftoff – which is scheduled to launch in May on a Falcon 9 rocket. The Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer, or EarthCARE for short, is the most complex Earth Explorer mission to date. The new satellite will look at the role that clouds and aerosols play in heating and cooling Earth’s atmosphere – contributing to our understanding of climate change. With its unique set of four instruments, EarthCARE will examine the role clouds and aerosols play in reflecting solar radiation back into space and also in trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface. EarthCARE is a joint venture between ESA and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. This video features interviews with Simonetta Cheli, Director of Earth Observation Programmes at ESA, Thorsten Fehr, ESA’s EarthCARE Mission Scientist, Dirk Bernaerts, ESA’s EarthCARE Project Manager and Eiichi Tomita, JAXA’s EarthCARE/CPR Project Manager. Access the related broadcast quality video material through the links below https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2023/10/EarthCARE_animations https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2024/01/EarthCARE_interviews https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2022/07/Earthcare_Satellite_B-Rolls View the full article

Video: 00:01:44 The two central stages for Ariane 6’s first flight are being assembled in the launcher assembly building (BAL) at Europe’s Spaceport. The core stage and the upper stage for Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6 are set to fly in the Summer of 2024. Once assembled, the stages will be transferred to the launch pad. On the launch pad, the two stages will be raised into their vertical launch position inside the mobile assembly building. Here the two boosters for Ariane 6’s first flight will be added and then the payloads will be placed on top and be covered by the fairing – Ariane 6’s nose cone that splits vertically in two. The stages arrived at Europe’s Spaceport on novel hybrid sail ship Canopée on 21 February after a two-week transatlantic crossing from mainland Europe. Ariane 6 is an all-new design, created to succeed Ariane 5 as Europe's heavy-lift launch system. With Ariane 6's upper stage restart capability, Europe's launch capability will be tailored to the needs of multiple payload missions, for example to orbit satellite constellations. This autonomous capability to reach Earth orbit and deep space supports Europe's navigation, Earth observation, scientific and security programmes. Ongoing development of Europe's space transportation capabilities is made possible by the sustained dedication of thousands of talented people working in ESA's 22 Member States. Access the related broadcast quality video material. View the full article

Image: Hera asteroid mission vs. absolutely nothing View the full article

Ultrasound devices are commonplace in modern orbital medical kits, helping to facilitate rapid diagnoses of astronaut ailments or bodily changes. However it takes real-time guidance from experts on the ground to acquire medically useful ultrasound images. Once astronauts travel to the Moon or further into the Solar System such guidance will no longer be practical due to the time delay involved. A new ESA-led project aims to leverage AI and Machine Learning so that astronauts can perform close to expert quality ultrasound exams by themselves. View the full article

Looking deep into space and time, two teams using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have studied the exceptionally luminous galaxy GN-z11, which existed when our 13.8 billion-year-old Universe was only about 430 million years old. View the full article

Video: 00:05:01 ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen explains how two experiments involving virtual reality makes on International Space Station. The first is Virtual Assistance Mental Balance (VAMB) where Andreas gets to enjoy a calm setting in nature that helps him relax. The second one is VR for Exercise, where he cycles on the Space Station’s exercise bike and through different bike routes in Denmark on the VR headset, which has quickly become a favourite for Andreas. Access the related broadcast quality video material. View the full article

Video: 00:23:34 Marco Sieber is one of ESA’s five astronaut candidates currently undergoing basic astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne. Join us as we speak to Marco about his first months of training and living in Germany, his background as a medical doctor, his favourite training lessons, and what he is excited about for the future of space exploration. This is the third episode of our ESA Explores podcast series introducing the ESA astronaut class of 2022. It was recorded in November 2023. Music and audio editing by Denzel Lorge. Cover art by Gaël Nadaud. View the full article

Image: Help Me In Distress View the full article

Week in images: 26 February - 1 March 2024 Discover our week through the lens View the full article