European Space Agency

Satellite navigation is headed closer to users. ESA’s Navigation Directorate is planning an in-orbit demonstration with new navigation satellites that will orbit just a few hundred kilometres up in space, supplementing Europe’s 23 222-km-distant Galileo satellites. Operating added-value signals, these novel so-called ‘LEO-PNT’ satellites will investigate a new multi-layer satnav system-of-systems approach to deliver seamless Positioning, Navigation and Timing services that are much more accurate, robust and available everywhere. View the full article

This complex region of craters and fractures in the Terra Sirenum region highlights the varied history of Mars. The image was taken by ESA’s Mars Express on 5 April 2022. View the full article

Video: 00:00:23 ESA’s Proba-2 captured two partial solar eclipses on 25 October 2022. A solar eclipse is caused by the movement of the Moon around Earth. Despite their much different sizes, due to their separation, the Moon appears to be about the same size as the significantly larger Sun in the sky. Occasionally, the Moon passes in front of the Sun, blocking its light, so that part of the Earth’s surface is in the Moon’s shadow. The line-up is not always perfect, and so not every eclipse is a total solar eclipse. On 25 October only part of the Sun’s light was blocked by the Moon, creating what is known as a partial eclipse. It was visible from most of Europe, North-Africa, the middle East and parts of Asia, with the Moon blocking 82% of the sunlight near the North Pole. In Europe up to 40% of the sunlight was obscured during the event. This partial eclipse was observed by ESA’s Proba-2 mission from its unique vantage point in space. Its SWAP instrument studies the Sun in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light where it focuses on the solar corona – the Sun’s hot turbulent atmosphere – at temperatures of about a million degrees. The corona is seen in the background of this video. For us on Earth, the Moon passes only once in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse. Since Proba-2 orbits the Earth in about 100 minutes, it was able to observe this eclipse not once but twice. Additionally, the Moon was first observed while traversing the field of view in the upper right corner, but not blocking any solar light. The first observation of the eclipse around 10:30 UTC (12:30 CEST) was cut short as Proba-2 experienced an occultation. Such an occultation occurs when Proba-2 flies through the Earth’s atmosphere and the SWAP instrument is not active. The second partial eclipse was captured around 12:25 UTC (14:25 CEST). This movie shows both the eclipses. ESA's Sun-watching spacecraft monitor the Sun's behaviour to better understand the influence of space weather on our home planet. The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission, in partnership with NASA, is orbiting the Sun from closer than ever before and will provide the first high resolution images of the Sun's poles. Meanwhile ESA Vigil will be the first mission to keep a constant eye on brewing space weather events, to better protect vital infrastructure on Earth and in orbit. View the full article

Image: Ten years: Warsaw at night View the full article

Image: Webb explores a pair of merging galaxies View the full article

The Copernicus Sentinel-1C satellite is currently in Cannes undergoing a series of demanding tests in preparation for launch in 2023. The third member of the Sentinel-1 radar family, part of Europe’s Copernicus programme, will continue the critical task of delivering key radar imagery of Earth’s surface for a wide range of services and scientific applications. View the full article

Despite being essential to life on Earth, the magnetic field isn’t something we can actually see in itself, or ever hear. But, remarkably, scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have taken magnetic signals measured by ESA’s Swarm satellite mission and converted them into sound – and for something that protects us, the result is pretty scary. View the full article

Week in images: 17-21 October 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Inhambane Bay, in southeast Mozambique, is featured in this true-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. View the full article

Image: Hubble follow-up of DART impact View the full article

Astronomers looking into the early Universe have made a surprising discovery using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Webb’s spectroscopic capabilities, combined with its infrared sensitivity, have uncovered a cluster of massive galaxies in the process of formation around an extremely red quasar. The result will expand our understanding of how galaxies in the early Universe coalesced into the cosmic web we see today. View the full article

After months of effort, astronomers have succeeded in capturing the momentary shadow cast by the Didymos asteroid, from tens of million km away as it passed in front of far-distant stars – a feat of observation only made possible when both the trajectory of the asteroid and the precise location of the stars are known. Even in that case, to have a chance of success, several observers had to be placed in meticulously predicted locations across the path of the shadow, to glimpse the fleeting fading of the star within just a fraction of a second. View the full article

Video: 00:31:00 Watch the replay of our Q&A with the media to learn about the outcomes of the 310th session of the ESA Council. Updates are provided on the ambitious package presented by ESA for the 22/23 November ESA Ministerial Meeting in Paris, but also on the further expansion of ESA memberships, the future of ExoMars, Space Transportation and the overall, delicate economic situation. View the full article

ESA’s Navigation Directorate is planning a new satellite whose results will enable the generation of an updated global model of Earth – the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, employed for everything from land surveying to measuring sea level rise – with an accuracy down to 1 mm, while tracking ground motion of just 0.1 mm per year. This improvement, at a stroke, will have a major impact in multiple navigation and Earth science applications, including enhancing the precision of the Galileo navigation system. This mission, called GENESIS, is being proposed to ESA’s Council Meeting at Ministerial Level next month. View the full article

Ariane 6, the new heavy-lift launch system being developed by the European Space Agency, will make its inaugural flight as soon as the fourth quarter of 2023. Briefing media gathered at ESA’s Paris Bertrand headquarters on 19 October, Director General Joseph Aschbacher said sufficient progress had been made over the past several months to anticipate a Q4 2023 first flight, pending the realization of three key milestones before April next year. View the full article

Video: 00:56:31 Press briefing on Ariane 6 progress at ESA Bertrand HQ, 19 October 2022: (l-r at front) Stéphane Israël (Arianespace Chief Executive), André-Hubert Roussel (ArianeGroup Chief Executive), Philippe Baptiste (CNES Chairman and Chief Executive), Joseph Aschbacher (ESA Director General), Daniel Neuenschwander (ESA Director of Space Transportation Systems) View the full article

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light. View the full article

The October Council edition of ESA Impact is online This edition includes Samantha Cristoforetti’s first spacewalk, the inaugural launch of Vega-C, Webb’s first images and ESA’s presence at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Paris View the full article

Video: 00:53:23 Watch the replay of Samantha’s first news conference in Europe after almost six months of living and working on board the International Space Station. Samantha talks from ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Her Minerva mission came to an end last week and she and her colleagues from Crew-4 splashed down off the coast of Florida on 14 October at 22:55 CEST. View the full article

After a two-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship transporting the first Meteosat Third Generation satellite docked at Pariacabo in French Guiana and the precious cargo unloaded. Now safe and sound in one of the spaceport’s cleanrooms, satellite engineers will ready it for liftoff on an Ariane 5 rocket in December. Once in geostationary orbit, this new satellite, which carries two new extremely sensitive instruments, promises to further bolster Europe's leadership in weather forecasting. View the full article

The Ariane 6 launch pad at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana now hosts for the first time a fully assembled example of ESA’s new heavy-lift rocket, following the addition of an upper composite to the core stage and four boosters already in place. The upper composite – consisting of two half-fairings and a payload mock-up with the structural adapter needed to join it to the core stage – made the 10 km trip from the encapsulation building to launch pad on 12 October. View the full article

Image: ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is all smiles after arriving in Cologne, Germany, less than a day after leaving the International Space Station. Speaking to media, she said, “I'm happy to be back and thankful for this incredible opportunity. I'm looking forward to be with my loved ones now and also to continue the scientific experiments during the post-flight phase." Samantha and her Expedition 67/68 crew mates NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins undocked from the Space Station on 14 October at 18:05 CEST. After a series of burns, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom transporting Crew-4 entered Earth’s atmosphere and deployed parachutes for a soft water-landing. They splashed down off the coast of Florida nearly fives hours later, at 22:55 CEST. The journey wasn’t quite over for Samantha’s ‘direct return’. She boarded a plane from Florida to Cologne, Germany, home of the European Astronaut Centre and the German Aerospace Cetner’s (DLR) :envihab facility where ESA astronauts are monitored after their space residency. During Mission Minerva, Samantha logged another 170 days in space, bringing her cumulative time off-planet to 369 days. During this time, she supported numerous European experiments and many more international experiments in microgravity. Among the highlights of her mission are Samantha’s first spacewalk in an Orlan suit, outfitting the European Robotic Arm alongside Oleg Artemyev; assuming the role of Space Station commander as fifth European and first European woman, to hold the leadership position; and becoming the first astronaut to take their science communication to TikTok. Read more memories from mission Minerva here. Missions to the International Space Station such as Minerva are an important part of ESA’s Terrae Novae exploration programme that will take us to the Moon and Mars. Read more about ESA’s vision here. View the full article

The first satellite to be built under ESA’s Eurostar Neo programme has launched. View the full article

Press Release N° 53–2022 ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti returned to Earth alongside NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, marking the end of her second mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Minerva. View the full article

Video: 00:00:47 In October 2022, ESA Space Shop opened its first temporary concept store on one of Europe’s busiest shopping streets. Located in Rome’s city centre, the first physical ESA Space Shop outside an ESA establishment aims to bring ESA and its space missions closer to the general public. For a period of three months only, the store offers a mix of cosmic fashion, space fun and official ESA merchandise. To mark the store’s opening in Rome, the ESA Space Shop brand also received an image boost! ESA clothing feels modern, cool and comfy, so you can have fun in space style wherever you like – and what’s more fun than exploring the historical piazzas and parks of the Eternal City? Watch the video trailer to see what we’re talking about! (Or watch the full promotional video here.) View the full article