European Space Agency

Data from the Tropomi instrument onboard the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite has been used to detect methane plumes over some of Europe’s largest methane-emitting coal mines. View the full article

Image: New picture, but a familiar face. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer took this image of Earth’s natural satellite, the subject of exciting news this week, from the seven-windowed cupola of the International Space Station. Down on Earth, the rocket that will launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft with the European Service Module to the Moon has been moved to the launchpad in Florida, USA, for its first full test before the Artemis I launch later this year. The Space Launch Systems rocket (SLS), aka the Moon rocket, left the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at around 23:00 CET (22:00 GMT) on 17 March on a 6.5 km trip to Launchpad LC39B. Traveling at a maximum speed of just 1.3 km/h, the 6.5-km voyage took 12 hours to complete on a specially designed crawler vehicle. In the preceding months the Orion spacecraft with European Service Module had been placed on top of the rocket. The first Artemis mission will send Orion to the Moon and back, farther than any human-rated spacecraft has travelled before. ESA’s European Service Module is the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion and provides everything needed to keep astronauts alive with water, oxygen, power and temperature control. Matthias posted this image to social media, saying “The Moon. So close, yet so far – but not for much longer!” With the rocket out on the launch pad, NASA and ESA are a step closer to our destination. Matthias added, “As I took these Moon shots from Cupola, I couldn't help but imagine what it would feel like to fly in Orion to the Gateway, propelled by the European Service Module.” It’ll be a while before that happens. In the meantime, Matthias has a lot to keep him busy during his Cosmic Kiss mission, including his first spacewalk next Wednesday 23 March. Alongside NASA’s Raja Chari, he will have a variety of tasks, including installing a power & data cable for Europe's external science platform Bartolomeo. Make sure to follow Cosmic Kiss on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube the Cosmic Kiss mission page and in regular Space Station updates from ESA. View the full article

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Week in images: 14 - 18 March 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Video: 00:08:04 One of the many milestones in the leadup to the launch of Artemis is its rollout: this is when a crawler will carry the SLS rocket with Orion and ESM from the Vehicle Assembly Building to launchpad 39B. NASA’s John Giles gives us a tour of the crawler and explains the adaptations made to this “wonderful piece of machinery” since it was first built for the Apollo programme in the 1960s. ESA is playing a key role in NASA’s Artemis programme, which will bring astronauts back to the Moon. The European Service Module – or ESM – will provide propulsion, power and thermal control for the Orion spacecraft. Access the related broadcast quality video material. View the full article

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer is scheduled to perform his first spacewalk next week, stepping outside the International Space Station on Wednesday 23 March alongside NASA’s Raja Chari. View the full article

Part of Lake Nasser, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world, is featured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. View the full article

Video: 01:01:27 Replay of the media information session following the 306th ESA Council, held on 16 and 17 March 2022 in Paris, France. Updates were provided on ESA’s main programmes, the outcome of the 16 February Space Summit in Toulouse, upcoming missions for Earth Observation, and for ESA astronauts, the overall rollout of the Director General’s Agenda 2025 on the way to the ESA Ministerial Meeting in November 2022 as well as the implications of the current geopolitical situation on ESA’s activities. View the full article

Press Release N° 9–2022 As an intergovernmental organisation mandated to develop and implement space programmes in full respect with European values, we deeply deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the aggression towards Ukraine. While recognising the impact on scientific exploration of space, ESA is fully aligned with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its Member States. View the full article

The media information session following the 306th ESA Council will be streamed at esawebtv.esa.int from 16:00 CET. View the full article

Following the completion of critical mirror alignment steps, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope team expects that Webb’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve. View the full article

On 18 February, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope was photographed by ESA’s Gaia observatory. View the full article

Image: Unlimited 3D printing for space View the full article

Lunar caves are not only a geologically pristine record of the Moon's history, but they could also provide a safe home for future human explorers. Building upon ESA Discovery's OSIP call and SysNova challenge, ESA gathered a spectrum of over 60 experts in many different areas of science and engineering to design a mission to enter a pit on the Moon's surface and explore the entrance to a lunar cave. View the full article

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ESA Impact March Council edition Great images and videos of Webb and Galileo launches, Matthias Maurer on the ISS and progress on Ariane 6. View the full article

Week in images: 7 - 11 March 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over the archipelago of Lofoten in northern Norway. View the full article

The time has come to register to attend the European Space Agency’s Living Planet Symposium – one of the largest Earth observation conferences in the world. Taking place on 23–27 May 2022 in Bonn, Germany, and jointly organised with the German Aerospace Center, this prestigious event allows all attendees to hear first-hand about the latest scientific findings on our planet. Attendees will also hear how observing Earth from space supports environmental research and action to combat the climate crisis, learn about novel Earth observing technologies and, importantly, learn about the new opportunities emerging in the rapidly changing sector of Earth observation. View the full article

Image: The long goodbye View the full article

Image: Backbone of Hera asteroid mission View the full article

Video: 00:31:09 Join ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer on a tour of Columbus, Europe’s science laboratory on the International Space Station. Cosmic Kiss is Matthias’s first mission to the Space Station and the Columbus module is one of his main workplaces. It is also where he sleeps in his crew quarters known as CASA. Columbus is Europe's largest contribution to the orbital outpost and the first European laboratory for permanent, multidisciplinary research in space. It houses 16 standardised payload cabinets, known as racks, which host laboratory equipment and technical systems. This allows the facility to support research across a wide range of different scientific disciplines. Work focuses on materials science, fluid physics, chemistry, remote sensing, biology, biotechnology, medicine and human physiology, as well as technology demonstrations to aid innovation on Earth. Once installed by an astronaut, many of the experiments that happen in Columbus can be remotely controlled and monitored by User Support Operations Centres on the ground. Matthias will live and work in orbit for approximately six months for his Cosmic Kiss mission. During this time, he will conduct and support more than 35 European and numerous other international experiments in microgravity. Follow Matthias Access the related broadcast quality video material. View the full article

It’s very difficult to know what lies beneath a blanket of kilometres-thick ice, so it is hardly surprising that scientists have long contested the shape and geology of the ancient supercontinent from which East Antarctica formed over a billion years ago. An ESA-funded study can now lay some of this conjecture to rest. Using sensors on aircraft to measure changes in the gravity and magnetic signatures of the different rocks under the ice, scientists have discovered a huge bay the size of the UK formed part of the edge of East Antarctica. View the full article

Discover ESA Explore the full range of ESA’s activities through a set of thematic journeys and virtual tours View the full article

Following a design competition, ESA has selected the industrial team that will design and build the first experimental payload to extract oxygen from the surface of the Moon. The winning consortium, led by Thales Alenia Space in the UK, has been tasked with producing a small piece of equipment that will evaluate the prospect of building larger lunar plants to extract propellant for spacecraft and breathable air for astronauts – as well as metallic raw materials for equipment. View the full article