European Space Agency

Video: 01:15:00 ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher shares the outcome of the ESA Council extraordinary meeting in this virtual Q&A with journalists. Additional updates are provided on ESA’s main programmes, the overall rollout of Agenda 2025 on the way to the ESA Ministerial Meeting in November 2022 as well as further implications of the current geopolitical situation on ESA’s activities. View the full article

With help from a cryocooler, Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument has dropped down to just a few degrees above the lowest temperature matter can reach and is ready for calibration. View the full article

Press Release N° 16–2022 Following the Russian aggression against Ukraine, ESA’s Director General has initiated a comprehensive review of all activities currently undertaken in cooperation with Russia and Ukraine. The objective is to determine the possible consequences of this new geopolitical context for ESA programmes and activities and to create a more resilient and robust space infrastructure for Europe. View the full article

Image: Radio eye on tree-counting Biomass View the full article

ESA’s new Space Safety Centre is a hub for activities protecting our planet from a raging star, risky asteroids and defunct satellites. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher inaugurated the Centre today at the Agency’s ESOC mission control centre, in Darmstadt, Germany. View the full article

Video: 00:01:35 ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer gives a glimpse into his morning routine aboard the International Space Station during his Cosmic Kiss mission. Matthias’s crew quarters, known as CASA (short for Crew Alternate Sleep Accommodation), is located within the European Columbus science laboratory module. The glowing pink light of this module comes from NASA’s Veggie facility, where astronauts help researchers study plant growth in microgravity. Each astronaut aboard the Space Station has their own crew quarter. No larger than a changing room, this is their bedroom in space where they can store personal items, use a laptop to contact friends and family and float to sleep in their sleeping bag. For out more about Matthias and his Cosmic Kiss mission visit https://www.esa.int/Cosmic_kiss Access the related broadcast quality video material. View the full article

Video: 01:30:00 Watch the replay of our live Q&A media session (In English and Italian) with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Samantha is scheduled to be launched to the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA, no earlier than 21 April 2022. She will fly to the Station as a Mission Specialist aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft alongside NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins. Upon arrival at the orbital outpost her ESA mission ‘Minerva’ will officially begin. This is the second space mission for Samantha and will see her support over 35 European and many more international experiments in microgravity. View the full article

After decades of drought, water levels in Lake Powell, the second-largest humanmade reservoir in the United States, have shrunk to its lowest level since it was created more than 50 years ago, threatening millions of people who rely on its water supply. Satellite images allow us to take a closer look at the dwindling water levels of the lake amidst the climate crisis. View the full article

Video: 00:01:00 The James Webb Space Telescope will explore the infrared Universe. It will use four cutting-edge instruments, including the Mid-InfraRed Instrument. MIRI is one of Europe's contributions to the James Webb Space Telescope. MIRI supports all of Webb’s science goals. It will image the Universe, study planets around our own and other stars and investigate stars and galaxies across cosmic history. The instsrument will be kept extra cold by its very own ‘cryocooler’. This stops heat from Webb disrupting MIRI’s detectors, so the sensitive instrument can see mid-infrared light. Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and CSA Learn more about MIRI here: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/MIRI_factsheet View the full article

Week in images: 4-8 April 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Tune in this Monday 11 April from 15:00-16:30 CEST (13:00-14:30 GMT) for a conversation between ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and media in Europe live on ESA Web TV. View the full article

Image: 3D-printed bone View the full article

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over part of Sindh – the third-largest province of Pakistan. View the full article

A contract signed with Arianespace secures the launch for the third Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite. Scheduled to lift off on ESA’s new Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in the first half of 2023, Sentinel-1C will continue the critical task of delivering key radar imagery for a wide range of services, applications and science – all of which benefit society. View the full article

Image: H a p p y W o r l d H e a l t h D a y Celebrated each year on 7 April, World Health Day shines a light on a health topic of concern. This year all eyes, including ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer’s, are on the health of our planet Earth. From on board the International Space Station 400 km above Earth, Matthias has a unique overview of our planet. Beautiful yet fragile, resilient yet under threat, our third rock from the Sun nevertheless needs looking after. Matthias work in space during Cosmic Kiss reinforces this. Besides taking numerous photos of Earth from space that compliment data taken by Earth observation satellites, he is also running many experiments exploring human health in space that benefits those on Earth. One such experiment is the joint ESA and German Aerospace Center’s Retinal Diagnostics project that monitors astronaut eyes while in space. Developed by young researchers from ESA’s Spaceship EAC initiative, the project uses images of astronauts’ optical discs in space to train an artificially intelligent (AI) model. This model will be used to automatically detect changes in the optic nerve of astronauts, known as Space-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS). Matthias uses an ophthalmic lens attached to a tablet camera to take images of his retina to send to experts on the ground. The app is so compact and easy to use that it can be used for remote examinations of patients in remote locations on Earth, so that everyone can keep an eye on their retinal health. Follow Matthias on his Cosmic Kiss mission for more science and space on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube the Cosmic Kiss mission page and in regular Space Station updates from ESA. View the full article

Side-lit by the Sun, its heavily cratered surface mired in shadow, the south pole of the Moon represents a highly challenging lunar landing target. Italian ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori took to an advanced flight simulator to try out a mock polar touchdown as part of a project to design a ‘human-in-the-loop’ lunar landing system. View the full article

Want to find out about applying for a job at ESA? Want to hear about the projects our teams are working on? Interested in joining our online job fair? You can do all this and more at ESA Careers Week from 2 - 5 May — save the date! View the full article

Passionate, original and talented: that’s what the 2021 ESA Champions look like. After reviewing thousands of profiles, the jury selected 15 space enthusiasts who showed particular passion for space in Europe and skills for communication. Read more about the awards and watch the video to meet the Champions! View the full article

Today is the annual 406 Day, celebrating the life-saving importance of emergency beacons, named for the radio frequency they operate on, as well as the satellites that relay their signals – with Europe’s own Galileo constellation prominent among them. While Galileo’s main purpose is satellite navigation, the system also picks up distress messages from across the globe and relays them to regional search and rescue authorities. View the full article

Juice: Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Juice: Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer View the full article

Image: Solar power down View the full article

Week in images: 28 March - 1 April 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Barranquilla, the capital of the Atlántico department in northwest Colombia, is featured in this image taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. View the full article

An important milestone in the development of ESA’s tenth Earth Explorer satellite mission, Harmony, has been reached thanks to two aircraft flying in tight formation over the Dutch Wadden Islands collecting key data on sea state and currents. The main purpose of this tricky airborne experiment is to mimic the geometry at which the Harmony satellites will measure various aspects of ocean dynamics to understand how air and the ocean surface interact, which, in turn, will improve weather prediction and climate models. View the full article

Cultured meat could be a game changer for the environment, food security, human health and animal welfare. But some challenges prevent it from reaching its full potential. Now ESA is supporting researchers to explore the possibility of growing cultured meat to feed astronauts. Overcoming the challenges of growing meat in space could also help us find solutions to produce it sustainably and effectively on Earth. View the full article