European Space Agency

Video: 00:01:07 The mission to return martian samples back to Earth will see a European 2.5 metre-long robotic arm pick up tubes filled with precious soil from Mars and transfer them to a rocket for an historic interplanetary delivery. The sophisticated robot, known as the Sample Transfer Arm or STA, will play a crucial role in the success of the Mars Sample Return campaign. The Sample Transfer Arm is conceived to be autonomous, highly reliable and robust. The robot can perform a large range of movements with seven degrees of freedom, assisted by two cameras and a myriad of sensors. It features a gripper – akin to a hand – that can capture and handle the sample tubes at different angles. The robotic arm will land on Mars to retrieve the sample tubes NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently collecting from the surface. Able to “see”, “feel” and take autonomous decisions, its high level of dexterity allows the arm to extract the tubes from the rover, pick them up from the martian ground, insert them into a container and close the lid before lifting-off from Mars. ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) will rendezvous with the container filled with martian samples and bring the material back to Earth. The joint endeavour between NASA and ESA aims to bring back martian samples to the best labs in our planet by 2033. Follow the latest news about Mars Sample Return on Twitter and read all about it on the blog To Mars and Back. More about the Sample Transfer Arm View the full article

Satellite imagery confirms an enormous iceberg, around five times the size of Malta, has finally calved from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. The new berg, estimated to be around 1550 sq km and around 150 m thick, calved when the crack known as Chasm-1 fully extended northwards severing the west part of the ice shelf. This crack was first revealed to be extending in early 2012 after having been dormant for some decades. After several years of desperately clinging on, image data from the Copernicus Sentinel missions visually confirm the calving event. View the full article

We’re marking 20 years of the European Centre for Space Records in ESA ESRIN, Frascati, one of the physical homes of the ESA Archives, by giving access to our digital holdings in a new web portal. View the full article

Galileo’s capabilities have grown with the addition of a new High Accuracy Service, freely available worldwide to anyone with a suitably equipped receiver. Delivering horizontal accuracy down to 20 cm and vertical accuracy of 40 cm, the High Accuracy Service is enabled through an additional level of real-time positioning corrections, delivered through a new data stream within the existing Galileo signal. View the full article

ESA has formed a formidable partnership with the EU to secure the future of Europe in space, developing Earth observation, navigation, secure connectivity and space entrepreneurship, people attending the 15th European space conference held on 24 and 25 January in Brussels will hear. View the full article

Image: Juice launch (artist’s impression) View the full article

The discovery of diverse ices in the darkest, coldest regions of a molecular cloud measured to date has been announced by an international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This result allows astronomers to examine the simple icy molecules that will be incorporated into future exoplanets, while opening a new window on the origin of more complex molecules that are the first step in the creation of the building blocks of life. View the full article

Video: 00:00:30 This video features a new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), showcasing the low-mass star forming region Chameleon I. An international team of astronomers has reported the discovery of diverse ices in the darkest, coldest regions of a molecular cloud measured to date by studying this region. This result allows astronomers to examine the simple icy molecules that will be incorporated into future exoplanets, while opening a new window on the origin of more complex molecules that are the first step in the creation of the building blocks of life. This research forms part of the Ice Age project, one of Webb's 13 Early Release Science programs, which has studied a dust ridge in the centre of the Chameleon I molecular cloud. Music: Stellardrone – Twilight View the full article

Video: 01:06:46 Watch a replay of our start-of-the-year press briefing looking ahead at 2023, with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Directors. They presented the next steps of Agenda 2025, looking at new missions, science, space safety and commercialisation of space. Access the Director General’s slides View the full article

Staying safe from cyberattacks that target vital services such as power supplies is increasingly important in today’s digital world. ESA is supporting European autonomy to keep people connected by working with satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space to develop highly secure technologies based on the unbreakable laws of quantum physics. View the full article

Join our start-of-the-year press briefing looking ahead at 2023, with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Directors. They’ll present the next steps of Agenda 2025, looking at new missions, science, space safety and commercialisation of space. Tune in to #ESAwebTV on 23 January, from 08:00 GMT/09:00 CET, to watch live. More on ESA’s Vision and Agenda25. View the full article

A commemorative plaque celebrating Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons has been unveiled on ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice. The spacecraft has just completed its final tests before departing Toulouse, France, for Europe’s Spaceport to count down to an April launch. View the full article

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Image: Visitor to a galaxy View the full article

With diminishing ice one of the biggest casualties of our warming world, it’s imperative that accurate measurements continue to be made for scientific research and climate policy, as well as for practical applications such as ship routing. To ensure that ESA and NASA are getting the best out of their ice-measuring satellites and to help prepare for Europe’s new CRISTAL satellite, the two space agencies along with the British Antarctic Survey and a team of scientists teamed up recently to carry out an ambitious campaign in Antarctica. View the full article

Image: Hera’s time of trial View the full article

One year ago, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted, causing widespread destruction to the Pacific Island Nation of Tonga, spewing volcanic material up to 58 km into the atmosphere. It brought a nearly 15 m tsunami that crashed ashore, destroying villages, and creating a sonic boom that rippled around the world – twice. Satellites orbiting Earth scrambled to capture images and data of the aftermath of the disaster. Almost a year later, you can now listen to a sonification of the largest eruption of the 21st Century, created using wind data from ESA’s Aeolus mission. View the full article

Week in images: 09-13 January 2023 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: Snowless ski slopes from space View the full article

Researchers have confirmed the presence of an exoplanet, a planet that orbits another star, using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope for the first time. Formally classified as LHS 475 b, the planet is almost exactly the same size as our own, clocking in at 99% of Earth’s diameter. View the full article

Two teams of astronomers using ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope have observed repeated outbursts of light from inactive black holes that partially destroy stars again and again. This discovery is unexpected, since outbursts of black holes usually appear only once when a black hole consumes a star. View the full article

Video: 00:06:33 At the start of 2023 the European Space Agency ESA is happily looking forward to another year filled with a host of thrilling new missions, cutting edge science and the continued effort to guarantee independent access to space for Europe. We will see the first images of the first Meteosat Third Generation satellite, the launch of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, and of Euclid and another Sentinel-1 satellite launch. It will also be the year of Ariane 6 which will make its inaugural flight and the first Dane in space, Andreas Mogensen will return to the ISS as the new astronaut-candidates commence their training. Near the end of the year the second Space Summit will further cement ESA’s ambitions for Space in Europe. View the full article

Scientists have developed a new Artificial Intelligence, or AI, technique using radar images from Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite mission, to reveal how the Thwaites Glacier Ice Tongue in West Antarctica is being damaged by squeezing and stretching as it flows from the middle of the continent to the coast. Being able to track fractures and crevasses in the ice beneath the overlying snow is key to better predicting the fate of floating ice tongues under climate change. View the full article

ESA is kicking off the new year by inviting you to create a unique juice mocktail to represent the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer – also known as Juice – launching in April. The winner of the most imaginative recipe will be invited to ESA’s Social Space launch event in Darmstadt, Germany, where our favourite space juices will be served! View the full article

Video: 00:19:50 Recently, Andreas Mogensen, now getting ready for his ‘Huginn’ mission to the ISS in 2023, stopped by ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, to meet with some of the experts who keep our satellites flying. Andreas usually works at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston as an ISS ‘capcom’, and we don’t often see him in Europe. A few months back, while returning to Germany for some training at ESA’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne, we seized the opportunity to ask him if he’d like to stop over in Darmstadt for a look behind the scenes at mission control, and he immediately answered, ‘yes’! Andreas’ studied aeronautical engineering with a focus on ‘guidance, navigation and control of spacecraft’ and we thought he’d be delighted to meet with the teams at mission control doing precisely that sort of work for our robotic missions. We figured he’d also enjoy meeting colleagues from our Space Safety programme, especially the ones working on space debris and space weather, as these are crucial areas that influence the daily life of astronauts on the ISS. Andreas met with Bruno Sousa and Julia Schwartz, who help keep Solar Orbiter healthy and on track on its mission to gather the closest-ever images of the Sun, observe the solar wind and our Star’s polar regions, helping unravel the mysteries of the solar cycle. He also met with Stijn Lemmens, one of the analysts keeping tabs on the space debris situation in orbit, and Melanie Heil, a scientist helping ESA understand how space weather and our active Sun can affect mission in orbit and crucial infrastructure – like power grids – on ground. We hope you enjoy this lively and informative day at mission control as much as Andreas and the teams at ESOC did! View the full article