European Space Agency

A team of astronauts, engineers and geologists is travelling to Spain’s Canary Islands, one of Europe’s volcanic hot spots, to learn how to best explore the Moon and Mars during ESA’s Pangaea geological training course. View the full article

High-resolution satellites have detected substantial quantities of methane leaking from adjacent landfill sites close to the centre of Madrid, Spain. Using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P mission combined with GHGSat’s high-resolution commercial imagery, scientists from the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research and GHGSat discovered both landfill sites combined emitted 8800 kg of methane per hour in August 2021 – the highest observed in Europe by GHGSat. View the full article

Image: Webb’s Ariane 5 core stage was raised vertical in the launch vehicle integration building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana View the full article

Tune in from Wednesday 10 November at 21:45 GMT/22:45 CET to see ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer be launched to the International Space Station for his first mission, Cosmic Kiss. View the full article

Thawing permafrost in the Arctic is already unleashing methane and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, exacerbating global temperature rise. As well adding to the climate crisis, this ground, which has been frozen for thousands of years, is becoming unstable and causing serious issues for local communities. For the first time, data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions along with artificial intelligence have been used to offer a complete overview of the Arctic to identify communities and infrastructure that will be at risk over the next 30 years. View the full article

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Video: 00:02:43 What if the Titanic had help from satellites? Its journey would likely have ended completely differently. We live in an ever-changing world; the shipping industry still faces the old dangers, but today also encounters risks due to climate change as well as incentives to become greener. Fortunately ships today have satellite support. Satellites designed for science, weather monitoring, Earth observation, navigation and communication serve our security needs on a daily basis. Not only in the ocean, but worldwide, in any situation. From fighting organised crime to monitoring climate change. From establishing worldwide food security to ensuring aviation safety. Global challenges are increasing in breadth and diversity and our notion of safety and security has become much broader in recent decades. Space programmes have become key; most risks to our society and economy require space in order to be adequately avoided, mitigated or managed. Keep an eye out for new webpages coming soon that highlight how space technology is being applied to safety and security applications on Earth. In the meantime, find out more at esa.int/spaceforearth View the full article

After almost 200 days in space it is time to return to planet Earth for ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide and NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur. View the full article

ESA offers an opportunity for payloads and experiments to ride on board the first flight of Ariane 6 planned in 2022. Notice of interest should reach ESA by 15 November. View the full article

Week in images: 01 - 05 November 2021 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Video: 00:01:19 After its arrival at Pariacabo harbour in French Guiana on 12 October 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope was transported to Europe’s Spaceport and unboxed in the cleanroom. It is now being prepared for its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket in December. Though the telescope weighs only six tonnes, it is more than 10.5 m high and almost 4.5 m wide when folded. It was shipped in its folded position in a 30 m long container which, with auxiliary equipment, weighed more than 70 tonnes. After arriving in the harbour, the telescope inside its container was towed by a heavy-load tractor unit to the spacecraft processing facility at Europe’s Spaceport. There, Webb’s special shipping container was opened, and the telescope was unboxed inside the facility’s cleanroom and installed on a rollover fixture to raise it vertical. This is how it will stand inside the Ariane 5 fairing. Webb’s launch campaign involves more than 100 specialists. Teams will work separately to prepare the telescope and the launch vehicle until they become one combined team to join the telescope with its rocket for a momentous liftoff. Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. As part of an international collaboration agreement, ESA is providing the telescope’s launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace. Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Find out more about Webb in ESA’s launch kit. Access the related broadcast quality footage. View the full article

Melt – ESA’s newly released documentary Glaciers across the globe have lost over nine trillion tonnes of ice in half a century. How will glaciers look over the coming decades? View the full article

The Shetland Islands, an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, are featured in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image. View the full article

European dates for the ‘Space Station Earth’ immersive concert tour, have been announced this week. View the full article

From panoramas to close-ups, from 3D maps to a wheel selfie, the Earth-bound twin of ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover is testing the wide range of photo settings that will deliver the greatest science possible during the ExoMars mission on the Red Planet. View the full article

Image: Space can be a cruel mistress, but she is a beautiful one. As we await the launch of ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and the return of Thomas Pesquet, let us marvel at the fact that humans live and work in space, an environment so inhospitable to us. As Thomas nears the end of his six-month mission Alpha on the Space Station, he took this image, noting that living on the International Space Station “really feels like flying on a spaceship into the cosmos… or wait… that’s what we do.” While astronauts are often pointing their cameras down to Earth, Thomas looked up for this image. “When you let your eyes adapt to the night, you start seeing millions of stars and it’s amazing…there’s also a lot of beauty in the cosmos itself, it’s just harder to see (and to photograph) at first.” Thanks to collective human intelligence and cooperation, the International Space Station has been a reality for over 20 years, hosting astronauts who run experiments and monitor our planet from above. While launches are quite routine these days, delays happen but that’s the space business. In that same spirit of partnership, humans are soon returning to the Moon on the Artemis missions, powered by the European Service Module, and preparing to build an outpost in lunar orbit. The Gateway will be a home far away from home and a stepping-stone to our next goal in space, humans on Mars. Until then, make sure to look up and, like Thomas, savour the view. You’re almost home. View the full article

Video: 00:31:09 Glaciers across the globe have lost over nine trillion tonnes of ice in half a century. How will glaciers look over the coming decades? “It all depends on what humans are doing now in terms of greenhouse gas emissions:” this is the message one scientist delivered during an ESA-led expedition to the Gorner Glacier in Switzerland – one of the biggest ice masses in the Alps. As world leaders gather for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties, watch the exclusive premiere of the documentary that follows ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, along with a team of glaciologists and climate experts, on their journey across the Alps to learn how rising global temperatures are taking their toll on glaciers. The documentary features breathtaking scenery of the Gorner Glacier as well as interviews with climate specialists as they explain how we can monitor glaciers using both satellite data and in situ measurements. The documentary features interviews with: Luca Parmitano, ESA astronaut Simonetta Cheli, Head of Strategy, Programme & Coordination Office, Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, ESA (as of 1 January 2022: ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes) Susanne Mecklenburg, Head of ESA’s Climate Office Anna Maria Trofaier, Cryosphere scientist, ESA Climate Office Frank Paul, Senior Researcher at the University of Zurich Alessio Romeo, Geologist at La Venta – Esplorazioni Geografiche Daniel Farinotti, Glaciologist at ETH Zurich View the full article

Video: 00:20:53 ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet had a call with the French President Emmanuel Macron on 4 November 2021 from the International Space Station. The call came at the end of Thomas’s second mission to space called Alpha. Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES. Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int. Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure. View the full article

Arguably, humankind has never been more aware of the jeopardy we and the planet face because of climate change. As world leaders at COP26 work to accelerate action towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions to keep the goal of 1.5°C temperature rise within reach, we bring you a new easy-to-use guide on what ESA is doing to understand and monitor climate change from space – data that are essential for policy-makers. View the full article

Video: 00:04:35 A collection of the best timelapse videos made during ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s second mission to the International Space Station, “Alpha” in 2021. The camera is setup to take pictures at intervals of two a second, and the pictures are then edited into this video that plays at 25 pictures a second. Most videos around 12 times faster than real speed. Thomas shared this video on social media with the caption: “Probably the last the timelapse from space, and fittingly here is a special edition "best of" montage: aurora, lightning, spacewalks, day views and spacecraft reentry in less than five minutes. Get comfy, cast it to your largest screen in the house and enjoy!” Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES. Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int. Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure. View the full article

In the first 20 years of reaching the atmosphere, methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. Reducing emissions of this extremely potent gas is, therefore, one of the fastest ways of slowing the rate of global warming, at least in the short term – and at COP26, more than 100 countries have just signed up to the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to limit emissions by 30% compared with 2020 levels. With both public and commercial satellite data playing key roles in assessing progress on climate action, ESA and GHGSat are supporting the United Nations Environment Programme’s new International Methane Emissions Observatory, also announced at COP26. View the full article

As world leaders and decision-makers join forces at COP26 to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, new research, again, highlights the value of satellite data in understanding and monitoring climate change. This particular new research, which is based on measurements from ESA’s CryoSat mission, shows that extreme ice melting events in Greenland have become more frequent and more intense over the past 40 years, raising sea levels and the risk of flooding worldwide. View the full article

Video: 00:02:12 The climate crisis is the most urgent challenge faced by humankind – affecting every region, continent, and ocean on Earth. Space has an untapped potential to make a difference in tackling the threats and challenges faced by humanity. Satellites watch over Earth continuously, helping us to monitor, understand, model, predict and act on climate change and its related challenges. As part of one of the three ‘Accelerators’ that will drive Europe’s increased use of space, the Space for a Green Future Accelerator will help Europe act to mitigate climate change. It will provide actionable information, helping form the baseline for effective European adaptation strategies to support the green transition, enabling the European Union to reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and supporting its Green Deal. Learn more about how ESA will bring Europe’s space ambitions to the next level by clicking here. View the full article

Image: Hunting for marine plastic View the full article

Video: 00:03:17 Satellites play a vital role in monitoring the rapid changes taking place in the Arctic. Tracking ice lost from the world’s glaciers, ice sheets and frozen land shows that Earth is losing ice at an accelerating rate. Currently more than a trillion tonnes of ice is lost each year. The sooner Earth’s temperature is stabilised, the more manageable the impacts of ice loss will be. View the full article