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After an extraordinary six-week voyage from northern Norway, the iconic Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl has docked in Nice, France, concluding ESA’s 2025 Advanced Ocean Training Course. Braving everything from wild storms to calm seas, students aboard mastered techniques for collecting ocean measurements and harnessed satellite data to unlock insights into our blue planet. Led by experts, this real-world expedition offered more than education – it sparked curiosity and a deeper commitment to understanding and protecting our oceans.
Credits: ESA/Ocean Media Lab
Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies, quasars and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics, particularly when it comes to studying the early Universe, but it’s a difficult one. Only in the case of a few nearby objects like the Sun, planets and some nearby stars can we measure their distances directly. Beyond that, various indirect methods need to be used; one of the most important is by examining Type Ia supernovae, and this is where the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope comes in.
NGC 3810, the galaxy featured in this image, was the host of a Type Ia supernova in 2022. In early 2023 Hubble focused on this and a number of other galaxies to closely examine recent Type Ia supernovae. This kind of supernova results from a white dwarf exploding, and they all have a very consistent brightness. That allows them to be used to measure distances: we know how bright a Type Ia supernova should be, so we can tell how far away it must be from how dim it appears. One uncertainty in this method is that intergalactic dust in between Earth and a supernova blocks some of its light. How do you know how much of the reduction in light is caused by distance, and how much by dust? With the help of Hubble, there’s a clever workaround: take images of the same Type Ia supernovae in ultraviolet light, which is almost completely blocked by dust, and in infrared light, which passes through dust almost unaffected. By carefully noting how much light comes through at each wavelength, the relationship between supernova brightness and distance can be calibrated to account for dust. Hubble can observe both these wavelengths of light in great detail with the same instrument. That makes it the perfect tool for this experiment, and indeed, some of the data used to make this beautiful image of NGC 3810 were focused on its 2022 supernova. You can see it as a point of light just below the galactic nucleus, or in the annotated image here.
There are many ways to measure cosmic distances; because Type Ia supernovae are so bright, they are one of the most useful and accurate tools, when they’re spotted. Many other methods must be used as well, either as an independent check against other distance measurements or to measure at much closer or farther distances. One such method that also works for galaxies is comparing their rotation speed to their brightness; based on that method, NGC 3810 is found to be 50 million light-years from Earth.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen almost face-on. Large spiral arms whirl out from its centre, filling the scene. They glow faintly blue from the stars within, with some small bright patches of blue and pink marking areas of star formation. They are overlaid with thin filaments of dark reddish dust that block light. The galaxy’s centre shines brightly white.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Sand, R. J. Foley; CC BY 4.0
On Friday 17 December, the Ariane 5 rocket fairing was closed around the James Webb Space Telescope. This protective fairing, or ‘nose cone’, will shield the telescope during liftoff and its journey through the atmosphere on 24 December.
Earlier this week, Webb was placed on top of Ariane 5 and a protective ‘shower curtain’ was put up to avoid any contamination.
On the day of encapsulation in the fairing, a protective cover on top of Webb was removed and the fairing was lowered down over the observatory and locked in place for liftoff.
This was a particularly delicate operation, assisted by a laser guiding system, because the margins between the folded up observatory (4.5 m wide) and the rocket fairing (5.4 m wide) are small.
The fairing is equipped with specialised environmental controls that keep the observatory in a perfectly controlled temperature and humidity range during its final few days on Earth.
Now that Webb has been securely attached to its Ariane 5 launch vehicle, and enclosed within its protective fairing, mechanical operations involving the observatory at its launch site in French Guiana have formally concluded.
Final electrical and software configurations will occur on the launch pad during the final hours before liftoff. Webb will switch to internal battery power roughly 20 minutes prior to liftoff, and within 15 minutes prior the observatory and its launch vehicle will both be fully cleared for flight.
Ariane 5’s rollout to the launch pad is scheduled to begin Wednesday 22 December, and this is where final health checks and preparations for liftoff will occur.
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 and interactive brochure.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - S.Martin
This simulated perspective oblique view shows Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano not only on Mars but in the entire Solar System. The volcano measures some 600 km across.
These data were obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera aboard ESA’s Mars Express, and the oblique perspective angle subsequently created using a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The data were gathered as part of new research revealing water frost for the first time near Mars’s equator (a part of the planet where it was thought improbable for frost to exist). The vertical scale is exaggerated by a factor of five.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A. Valantinas
Bright and dark streaks covering the slopes of the Olympus Mons aureole, as seen by the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.
As if someone has been sweeping the surface of Mars with a broom, the origin of odd, streaked slopes has intrigued scientists for decades.
These enigmatic features come and go spontaneously, some last for years while others quickly fade. They change colour and brightness and show up during certain seasons on opposite hemispheres of the Red Planet.
Scientists first saw these enigmatic streaks extending for hundreds of metres down sloped terrain in images from the Viking orbiters in the 1970s. How they form, where and when has fueled scientific debate ever since.
Some researchers have interpreted these streaks as flows of salty water, or brine, that could remain liquid long enough to form them. This hypothesis suggests rare habitable zones might exist on this otherwise desert world where temperatures rarely rise above freezing.
However, a new study led by planetary scientists at the University of Bern and Brown University challenges the water-based explanation. Their paper in Nature Communications argues that these slope streaks result from dry processes involving wind and dust activity.
Researchers turned to a machine learning algorithm to scan and catalogue slope streaks in over 86 000 satellite images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Scientists combined several decades’ worth of orbital data and the neural power of deep learning to produce a global map with almost 500 000 streak features across Mars. The new study created the largest database yet of these features on Mars.
The team also turned to other cameras orbiting Mars, such as the CaSSIS imager on ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter and MRO’s HiRISE, to collect more colour information in high resolution, as well as to monitor how the streaks evolved over time.
The correlations over hundreds of thousands of cases helped the team shed new light on a decades-old debate. With no evidence of water, scientists concluded that dry processes – rather than liquid flow – drive the appearance of streaked slopes on Mars.
The study found that these winding features most likely form when layers of fine dust suddenly slide off steep terrain. Multiple triggers could unleash this process, such as rocks falling, small meteoroid impacts or wind gusts causing shockwaves and shaking loose dust.
To bring out these features, the contrast in these CaSSIS images is stretched – the image is re-scaled between the minimum and maximum brightness within each colour before combining them to produce the published image.
ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter continues to image Mars from orbit to understand its ancient past and potential habitability. The spacecraft returns spectacular images and provides the best inventory of atmospheric gases and mapping the planet’s surface for water-rich locations.
Understanding the history of water on Mars and whether it once allowed life to flourish is at the heart of ESA’s ExoMars missions.
“Streaks on Martian Slopes are Dry,” by Valentin Bickel and Adomas Valantinas, was published in Nature Communications on 19 May 2025.
The image covers an area of approximately 50 square kms and was captured on 3 October 2024. Mars location: 26.5°N, 223.8°E. CaSSIS image MY37_030618_155_3.
Credits: ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
On 17 December at 05:01 GMT (06:01 CET), two new Galileo satellites lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana aboard an Ariane 6 rocket. This marked the 14th launch for Europe’s satellite navigation operational satellite programme, reinforcing Europe’s resilience and autonomy.
The flight, designated VA266, was the first launch of Galileo satellites on Europe’s newest heavy-lift launcher Ariane 6.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is responsible for carrying out the Galileo launch with Arianespace on behalf of the European Commission. The Galileo satellites were manufactured by OHB, under contract with ESA. Once in orbit, the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) will bring the satellites into service and oversee their operation.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The ExoMars rover has a brand new control centre in one of Europe’s largest Mars yards. The Rover Operations Control Centre (ROCC) was inaugurated on 30 May 2019 in Turin, Italy, ahead of the rover’s exploration adventure on the Red Planet in 2021.
The control centre will be the operational hub that orchestrates the roaming of the European-built laboratory on wheels, named after Rosalind Franklin, upon arrival to the martian surface on Kazachok, the Russian surface platform.
The epicentre of the action for directing Mars surface operations on Earth is at the ALTEC premises in Turin, Italy. From here, engineers and scientists will work shoulder to shoulder at mission control, right next to a very special Mars yard.
Filled with 140 tonnes of soil, the Mars-like terrain has sandy areas and rocks of various sizes that will help rehearse possible mission scenarios.
Credits: ALTEC
Check our accessible text here.
Image description: A woman surrounded by particles in the air sneezes.
Lunar dust is made of sharp, abrasive nasty particles, but it is yet unknown how toxic is for humans.
From sneezing to nasal congestion, all 12 people who have stepped on the Moon described symptoms similar to hay fever.
The European Space Agency’s research on the International Space Station is helping understand lung health in space.
#ForwardToTheMoon
Credits: ESA
Map showing active dust devils during local spring and summer in Mars’s northern hemisphere (black and dark grey-blue dots and arrows respectively) and during spring and summer in the southern hemisphere (light grey and pink dots and arrows respectively).
The coloured dots indicate 1039 dust devils for which we have only location information, and the arrows indicate 373 dust devils for which we also have speed and direction of motion information.
The dust devils were found in 20 years’ worth of images from European Mars orbiters. The arrows show their direction of travel.
Though our two Mars orbiters could not possibly capture all the dust devils travelling across Mars’s surface (there are estimates that there may be one per square kilometre per day, and they last just minutes to hours), this first-ever catalogue of the motions for dust devils all over Mars means that statistical studies can be done to better understand wind close to the surface of Mars, and models of the martian climate can already be improved.
The white squares show the locations of Mars rovers and landers. Dust can be bad for rovers if it accumulates on their solar panels, reducing their energy output unless the panels can be wiped clear.
The locations and speeds of the dust devils revealed a lot about where and when dust is lifted into and moved around Mars’s atmosphere, according to new research published in Science Advances.
[Image description: A map of Mars displays coloured arrows and dots scattered across the planet’s surface, representing the locations of 1039 dust devils and the directions of movement of 373. The arrows show how these tornado-like whirlwinds travel, with colors indicating different Martian seasons. The background is a faded image of Mars, and several white squares mark the landing sites of Mars rovers and landers.]
Credits: ExoMars TGO data: ESA/TGO/CaSSIS; Mars Express data: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO; Background: NASA Viking colour mosaic
Acknowledgements: Valentin Bickel, University of Bern
Gravity gradient shape index map of Antarctica draped on bedrock topography, derived from GOCE data. In remote frontiers like the Antarctic continent, where even basic knowledge of lithospheric scale features remains incomplete, GOCE’s new curvature images help unveil the difference in lithospheric structure between the dense craton composite of East Antarctica and the rift system of West Antarctica. These enhanced satellite gravity gradient images provide tantalising new insights for lithosphere and large-scale tectonic studies in the least understood continent on Earth. These enhanced images can additionally be used to understand the evolution of the plate tectonic evolution of the Antarctic region and Earth in general. The blue colours indicate ‘bowl’ features and the red colours indicate ‘dome’ features, see also GOCE’s global tectonic map image.
Credits: Kiel University/BAS
This rare, almost cloud-free view of the remote Elephant Island in Antarctica was captured in February 2023 by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.
Lying in the Southern Ocean about 250 km northeast off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, Elephant Island is one of the outermost of the South Shetland Islands. It owes its name to both the sighting of elephant seals along its shores and its elephant-like shape, here the ‘trunk’ is partially covered by clouds.
This mountainous island is covered by ice. The highest peaks are Mount Pendragon, which reaches around 970 m, visible on the southern end, and, moving northeast, Mount Elder, which reaches around 945 m.
North of Mount Elder, the wide Endurance Glacier can be seen in the centre of the image. It is the main discharge glacier on the island and drains to the south and into the Weddel Sea. Thin sea ice, visible in light blue in front of the calving front, separates the glacier terminus from the open ocean waters.
The variations in the colour of the waters surrounding the island are due to sediment eroded by the flow of ice and carried by meltwater into the ocean. Small icebergs can be spotted, particularly off the western coast, as little white dots speckling the water. The white lines along the island coasts are the result of big waves crashing against the rocky steep cliffs.
Dramatic changes in Antarctica’s ice have become synonymous with the climate crisis. The continued observations from satellites are key to surveying the remote polar regions. Satellites can monitor the melting ice sheets caused by rising temperatures and the subsequent rising of sea levels, as well as the impact on global ocean currents caused by the increased influx of freshwater into ocean. This is paramount to improving our understanding of the Earth system and to providing evidence on the impact of climate change.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
A European lunar landscape: a 1:1 model of ESA’s Argonaut lunar lander at Europe’s Moon on Earth, LUNA.
Argonaut is ESA’s lunar lander programme and represents Europe’s future autonomous, versatile and reliable access to the Moon. Argonaut lunar landers, fully built by European industry, will transport 1.5 tonnes of cargo to anywhere on the lunar surface, supporting international robotic and crewed missions to the Moon. The cargo could include vital resources for astronauts such as food, water and air, as well as rovers, science instruments, infrastructures for communication and power generation and more. Together with the lander's ability to survive the harsh lunar night (unlike Apollo missions), these supplies will support long-term human presence on the Moon, helping to develop the capabilities needed to live and work on the lunar surface.
The model stands in LUNA, a cutting-edge lunar training ground that recreates some of the challenging conditions on the Moon, such as the harsh sunlight and dusty ground, to help researchers prepare for exploration on the lunar surface. At the heart of the facility is a 700-square metre testbed filled with simulated lunar dust, with a deep floor area that allows for sampling and drilling up to three metres below the surface. The facility is located near Cologne, Germany and is operated jointly by ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Here, engineers, scientists and astronauts can prepare for the next steps forward to the Moon.
Watch Matthias Maurer walking across the dusty terrain of LUNA.
Credits: ESA-R. Barbosa
After it's arrival at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana ahead of launch, the James Webb Space Telescope is unboxed inside a dedicated spacecraft preparation facility where it will be examined to ensure that it is undamaged from its voyage and in good working order.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG - P.Piron
Official portrait of ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer wearing NASA's Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit ahead of his Cosmic Kiss mission to the International Space Station. This spacesuit is worn by astronauts during US spacewalks outside the International Space Station.
Credits: ESA/NASA
This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the symbiotic star Mira HM Sge. Located 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta, it consists of a red giant and a white dwarf companion. The stars are too close together to be resolved by Hubble. Material bleeds off the red giant and falls onto the dwarf, making it extremely bright. This system first flared up as a nova in 1975. The red nebulosity is evidence of the stellar wind. The nebula is about one-quarter light-year across.
Astronomers have used new data from Hubble and the retired NASA SOFIA observatory (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) as well as archival data from other missions to revisit the binary star system.
Between April and September 1975, the binary system HM Sagittae (HM Sge) grew 250 times brighter. Even more unusual, it did not rapidly fade away as novae commonly do, but has maintained its luminosity for decades. Recently, observations show that the system has gotten hotter, but paradoxically faded a little.
The 2021 ultraviolet data from Hubble showed a strong emission line of highly ionised magnesium that was not present in earlier published spectra from 1990. Its presence shows that the estimated temperature of the white dwarf and accretion disk increased from less than 220,000 degrees Celsius in 1989 to greater than 250,000 degrees Celsius now. The highly ionised magnesium line is one of many seen in the UV spectrum, which analysed together will reveal the energetics of the system, and how it has changed in the last three decades.
With data from NASA's flying telescope SOFIA, which retired in 2022, the team was able to detect the water, gas, and dust flowing in and around the system. Infrared spectral data shows that the giant star, which produces copious amounts of dust, returned to its normal behaviour within only a couple years of the explosion, but also that it has dimmed in recent years, which is another puzzle to be explained. With SOFIA astronomers were able to see water moving at around 28 kilometres per second, which they suspect is the speed of the sizzling accretion disk around the white dwarf. The bridge of gas connecting the giant star to the white dwarf must presently span about 3.2 billion kilometres.
Credits: NASA, ESA, R. Sankrit (STScI), S. Goldman (STScI), J. DePasquale (STScI); CC BY 4.0
ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite lifted off on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 22 August at 21:20 GMT (23:20 CEST). Using revolutionary laser technology, Aeolus will measure winds around the globe and play a key role in our quest to better understand the workings of our atmosphere. Importantly, this novel mission will also improve weather forecasting.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
This is a combination of Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken from December 28th to 30th, 2024. At the midpoint of the observations, Mars was approximately 98 million kilometres from Earth. Thin water-ice clouds that are apparent in ultraviolet light give the Red Planet a frosty appearance. The icy northern polar cap was experiencing the start of Martian spring.
In the left image, the bright orange Tharsis plateau is visible with its chain of dormant volcanoes. The largest volcano, Olympus Mons, pokes above the clouds at the 10 o’clock position near the northwest limb. At an elevation of 21 000 metres, it is 2.5 times the height of Mt. Everest above sea level. Valles Marineris, Mars’ roughly 4,000 kilometre-long canyon system, is a dark, linear, horizontal feature near center left.
In the right image, high-altitude evening clouds can be seen along the planet’s eastern limb. The 2,250-kilometre-wide Hellas basin, an ancient asteroid impact feature, appears far to the south. Most of the hemisphere is dominated by the classical “shark fin” feature, Syrtis Major.
[Image description: Two views of planet Mars on a black background of space observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. At left, text: December 28, 2024 20:00 UT. At right, text: December 29, 2024 13:18 UT. In both images, its atmosphere is clear and the surface appears detailed. Most of the planet is shades of orange. At left, the brightest orange area appears in the left half. At right, the brightest orange area is centered and takes on the rough shape of a sleeping mask. In both views, darker surface features are noticeable on the lower half of the planet. These have a mix of orange, blue, and gray hues. At the top and bottom, white regions mark the planet’s polar caps. The entire limb of the planet, its visible edge, has a blue hue. The blue doesn’t form an even circle at the edges, and appears thinner toward the left and right, and thicker in some areas.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI; CC BY 4.0
Why rockets are so captivating is not exactly rocket science. Watching a chunk of metal defy the forces of gravity satisfies many a human’s wish to soar through the air and into space.
Today there are countless rockets to satisfy the itch, and they are not all big launchers delivering heavy satellites into space, like Europe’s Ariane 5 and the upcoming Ariane 6.
Sounding rockets, like this Rexus (Rocket Experiments for University Students) being assembled at the ZARM facilities in Bremen, Germany, are launched regularly in the name of science from the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.
Rexus rockets carry approximately 100 kg of experiments to the edge of space before falling back to Earth, providing up to three minutes of microgravity along the way.
The sounding rocket pictured was launched in March 2019 on Rexus 25 and included an experiment by students from Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland. Several modular experiments are held in the circular containers imaged here.
Called Hedgehog, the experiment tested patented instruments for measuring acceleration, vibration and heat flow during launch. The team hopes to refine the tools for use on ground-based qualification tests that all payloads must pass before launch.
At launch, Rexus produces a peak vertical acceleration of around 17 times the force of gravity. Once the rocket motors shut off, the experiments enter freefall. On the downward arc parachutes deploy, lowering the experiments to the ground for transport back to the launch site by helicopter as quickly as possible.
A service module sends data and receives commands from the ground to keep everything on course while sending videos and data to ground stations.
ESA has used sounding rockets for over 30 years to investigate phenomena under microgravity from the state-of-the-art facilities are available at Esrange. The laboratories include microscopes, centrifuges and incubators so investigators can prepare and analyse their experiments around flight.
Coordinated by ESA Education, the Rexus/Bexus programme launches two sounding rockets a year and provides an experimental near-space platform for students who can work on different research areas from atmospheric research and fluid physics, to materials science, radiation physics and technology demonstrators.
Another platform for microgravity experimentation is the Space Rider laboratory. To be launched on a Vega-C rocket, the high-tech space lab can fit up to 800 kg of payloads inside the environmentally controlled cargo bay that will run in low-Earth orbit for a minimum of two months before returning its payloads to Earth.
Like sounding rockets, Space Rider will enable a range of experiments in microgravity and open opportunities for educational missions, starting in 2020.
Credits: ESA
It might not be obvious, but there are many similarities between working deep underground and in outer space.
Just as with spacewalks, underground ‘cavewalks’ require safety tethering, 3D orientation, careful planning and teamwork. Cave explorers need to stay alert in an environment where they are deprived of natural light and every move is a step into the unknown.
ESA’s CAVES training course has been taking astronauts below Earth’s surface and prepared them to work safely in an environment where the terrain, climate and climbing techniques pose high demands.
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps is seen here, to the left, hanging over 200 m of void and closely monitored by certified speleology instructor Marco Vattano during her descent. After a week of preparations, Jeanette explored a cave in Slovenia where she lived and worked for six days with five other ‘cavenauts’.
Jeannette follows NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who became the first woman to participate in CAVES in 2016 and who recently starred in an all-female spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
The procedure for moving along a cave wall strongly resembles spacewalking. “You have to be very aware of the position of your body and what is around you. If you hit something or miss a step, the consequences are critical,” explains NASA astronaut Mike Barratt in this video about his CAVES adventure back in 2013.
As a veteran spacewalker, Mike points out how working in darkness along a handrail and using safety tethers at all times was quite similar to walking in space using the Russian Orlan spacesuit. Managing stress and taking decisions in an alien environment over long periods is exhausting.
As with a launch and landing in a spacecraft, entering and exiting from a cave are the most critical moments. Caves are hostile environments and the crew could face situations where the intervention of speleologists with advanced technical skills could be required to prevent accidents.
Qualified personnel were always close by, while all equipment is regularly checked by a fellow explorer – a buddy-check.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, a veteran ‘cavewalker’ and spacewalker, will step out into space for his first spacewalk of the Beyond mission in November tasked with repairing and enhancing the ‘dark matter’ hunting AMS-02 instrument – a structure never designed to be maintained in orbit. Before then he will support a series of spacewalks from inside the Station to upgrade the Station's power capacity.
Read more about CAVES on our dedicated website and in the blog.
Credits: ESA–A. Romeo
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change identifies the Republic of the Marshall Islands, as particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, with rising sea levels posing an existential threat. The country consists of two parallel chains of atolls and islands in the central Pacific Ocean.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2025), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
It looks like a flight control room: interlinked consoles are ranged in front of a 6-m long multimedia wall, to host representatives of all space mission disciplines. However, ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility is not for steering satellites, but for specialist experts to come together and design them.
Teams of experts gather here to perform concurrent ‘pre-Phase A’ studies of proposed future space missions, rapidly establishing their initial technical, programmatic and economic feasibility ahead of industrial development.
Based at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, the CDF has performed more than 250 studies to date, their subjects ranging from CubeSats to Moon bases, systems of systems to probes to the outer planets – along with the very first iterations of numerous ESA missions that have gone on to fly. This year the CDF marks its 20th birthday.
“Concurrent engineering involves bringing all necessary experts into a single room to work together in real time,” explains CDF founder Massimo Bandecchi. “Their collaboration is based on a shared software model of the mission.
“The result is very powerful: with all disciplines contributing at the same time and place, we tackle problems from all points of view, to turn a naturally sequential process into something more parallel, to complete studies in weeks rather than months.”
From humble origins using second-hand computers in a disused server room the CDF has grown to become a major ESA asset, performing 10 to 15 major studies per year, in the process inspiring more than 40 other concurrent engineering centres across Europe, following the CDF model.
Credits: ESA–G. Porter
No, they are not wearing spacewalk-like costumes nor pretending to be on the Moon. Yet ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson are equipped with all the tools they need to explore and understand the geology behind a lunar or martian landscape, in a not-so-distant human mission to unknown worlds.
Alexander and Stephanie arrived at the Spanish Canary Island of Lanzarote for an intense week of training as part of ESA’s Pangaea geology course. For the fifth time, this island is one leg of a campaign that takes astronauts to locations across Europe, such as the Bletterbach canyon in Italy, the Ries crater in Germany or a Norwegian fjord in Lofoten.
Lanzarote is an open-air museum to learn about the geological interactions between volcanic activity and water – two key factors in the search for life.
The Pangaea approach is straightforward: learn to look at other planets by looking at Earth. During weeks of immersive lessons, the space travelers gather a wealth of knowledge in planetary geology and learn how to be the eyes and ears of scientists on the ground.
In this picture, Alexander and Stephanie are exploring the rim of Caldera Blanca, the remains of an ancient volcano. They are wearing kit designed to make the most out of geological sample collection and analysis on-the-spot. Besides the indispensable rock hammers, they are carrying spectrometers and microscopes connected with the all-in-one tool for future space explorers – the Electronic Field Book.
Alexander uses this ‘space tablet’ to map their exploration, keep a record of the samples collected and communicate their observations with the science team.
In Alexander’s words, “this is the next level up. With a new era of space exploration about to begin, it is crucial for us astronauts to get a good foundation of knowledge of planetary geology.”
From choosing landing sites for a future Artemis mission, to designing science operations for a moonwalk, the course challenges space explorers to become field scientists.
Follow the latest news about Pangaea training on Twitter, read all about it on the blog and follow their steps with our Flickr gallery.
Credits: ESA – A. Romeo
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher is talking to ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer who is aboard the International Space Station during the Intermediate Ministerial Meeting (IMM21), where ESA’s Ministers in charge of space activities convened.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a weird and mysterious world. Now, in an unprecedented study spanning two decades, researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new insights into the planet's atmospheric composition and dynamics. This was possible only because of Hubble’s sharp resolution, spectral capabilities, and longevity.
The team observed Uranus four times in a 20-year period: in 2002, 2012, 2015, and 2022. They found that, unlike conditions on the gas giants Saturn and Jupiter, methane is not uniformly distributed across Uranus. Instead, it is strongly depleted near the poles. This depletion remained relatively constant over the two decades. However, the aerosol and haze structure changed dramatically, brightening significantly in the northern polar region as the planet approaches its northern summer solstice in 2030.
The image columns show the change of Uranus for the four years that the STIS instrument observed Uranus across a 20-year period. Over that span of time, the researchers watched the seasons of Uranus as the south polar region darkened going into winter shadow while the north polar region brightened as northern summer approaches.
Credits: NASA, ESA, E. Karkoschka (LPL); CC BY 4.0
After its arrival in the final assembly building, on 1 April ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was slowly lifted from the air cushion platform on which it sat during its transfer to the building. Following this process, it was lifted over 50 metres into the air, and then carefully lowered onto the top of the Ariane 5 rocket that will carry it into space.
This whole operation was performed under strict safety and cleanliness regulations to keep Juice in prime condition for launch on 13 April. The operators wore bright yellow suits; these are used whenever hazardous operations are carried out, for example when a spacecraft is moved.
Juice is being prepared to launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. After an eight-year journey to Jupiter, the mission will make detailed observations of the gas giant and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of instruments. The mission will characterise these moons as both planetary objects and possible habitats, explore Jupiter’s complex environment in depth, and study the wider Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants across the Universe.
Find out more about Juice in ESA’s launch kit
Credits: 2023 ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE / Optique vidéo du CSG - JM GUILLON
The Ariane 5 launch vehicle which will launch the James Webb Space Telescope was moved to the final assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 29 November 2021.
Ariane 5 parts shipped from Europe to French Guiana, have been coming together inside the launch vehicle integration building.
The lower part of the Ariane 5 comprises the cryogenic main core stage (with the Vulcain main engine, oxygen and hydrogen tanks), two solid rocket boosters and the upper composite, including the cryogenic upper stage (with the HM7B engine, oxygen and hydrogen tanks), the vehicle equipment bay – the 'brain' of the launcher, and all supporting structures that will interface with Webb on its adaptor.
A launch table is used to transport the Ariane 5 vehicle between the launch vehicle integration building, the final assembly building and the launch pad.
Webb, now fuelled, will soon be integrated on Ariane 5’s upper stage and then encapsulated inside Ariane 5’s specially adapted fairing.
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 and interactive brochure.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P Baudon
At the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 56 astronauts NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev and ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst pose in their Sokol suits in front of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft that will launch them into space. They will be launched 6 June for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.
Alexander's mission is called Horizons to evoke exploring our Universe, looking far beyond our planet and broadening our knowledge. His first mission was called Blue Dot. Alexander will take over command of the International Space Station for the second half of his mission. This is only the second time that a European astronaut will take up this leading position on the space outpost – the first was ESA astronaut Frank De Winne in 2009. Alexander Gerst is the 11th German citizen to fly into space.
The science programme is packed with European research: more than 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people back on Earth and prepare for future space exploration.
Credits: NASA–V. Zelentsov
An international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. These stars provide compelling new evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole.
Omega Centauri is visible from Earth with the naked eye and is one of the favourite celestial objects for stargazers in the southern hemisphere. Although the cluster is 17 000 light-years away, lying just above the plane of the Milky Way, it appears almost as large as the full Moon when seen from a dark rural area. The exact classification of Omega Centauri has evolved through time, as our ability to study it has improved. It was first listed in Ptolemy's catalogue nearly two thousand years ago as a single star. Edmond Halley reported it as a nebula in 1677, and in the 1830s the English astronomer John Herschel was the first to recognise it as a globular cluster. Omega Centauri consists of roughly 10 million stars that are gravitationally bound.
[Image Description: A globular cluster, appearing as a highly dense and numerous collection of shining stars. Some appear a bit larger and brighter than others, with the majority of stars appearing blue and orange. They are scattered mostly uniformly, but in the centre they crowd together more and more densely, and merge into a stronger glow at the cluster’s core.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Häberle; CC BY 4.0
The propulsion test stand (BEAP) has been prepared for the P120C solid rocket development motor for a static firing test in July 2018.
The P120C, designed as boosters on Ariane 6 and as the first stage for Vega-C, is the largest single-unit, carbon-fibre solid-propellant motor ever built.
Its development relies on innovative technologies derived from the P80, Vega’s current first stage motor.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The Zefiro-40 solid rocket motor, the second stage of the Vega-C rocket, was tested 28 May 2024 by Vega-C prime contractor Avio at its Salto di Quirra test facility in Sardinia, Italy. The motor featured an improved engine nozzle design, required to prepare for a Vega-C return-to-flight by the end of 2024.
The initial post-test review indicates that the new nozzle assembly performed as expected throughout the scheduled 94 seconds burning time of the test, simulating a nominal in-flight performance.
The Zefiro-40 is a 7.6 m tall rocket motor, loaded with over 36 tonnes of solid propellant. For this test the motor was installed on its horizontal test bench. Zefiro-40 is developed and manufactured by Avio in their Colleferro factory near Rome, Italy.
A second firing-test will be conducted after the summer to confirm the data collected. Avio engineers will review the data from the first test to prepare for a second test in October that will then qualify the second stage Zefiro-40 solid rocket motor for a return-to-flight by end 2024 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Vega-C is a 35-m-tall launcher with a mass at liftoff of 210 000 kg. It can place about 2300 kg into a polar orbit. Vega-C can accommodate a mix of cargo shapes and sizes, ranging from CubeSats as small as one kilogram up to a single large payload.
Credits: Avio
Usually associated with video games, virtual reality is an immersive technology that simulates physical presence and interaction.
Today astronauts use computer simulations to help prepare for life on the International Space Station, practising spacewalks and operating equipment in microgravity – all while never leaving the ground.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is hard at work preparing for his Beyond mission. In this image, Luca is navigating through a computer-generated environment to learn the route he might take outside the Space Station on a spacewalk, helping him to take decisions and act more quickly during the actual spacewalk. The training facility is part of Virtual Reality Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA.
Luca is also getting reacquainted – Luca flew to the Space Station in 2013 – with safety procedures, robotic operations and learning about the experiments he will conduct in the orbital outpost.
He will be launched for his six-month stay aboard the International Space Station in July as part of Expedition 60/61, alongside NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov.
International cooperation in human spaceflight does not only take place on the Space Station but begins well before, during training. Astronauts prepare not only at NASA’s Johnson Space Center but also at Star City near Moscow, and of course at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.
Luca will serve as Space Station commander during the second half of his mission. This will be the third time a European astronaut has held this leadership role, but the first time by an Italian astronaut.
How does Luca plan to take on this exciting yet challenging responsibility?
“I see myself as a facilitator. My goal will be to put everybody in the condition to perform to the best of their capability,” he says.
Credits: NASA
ESA’s technical heart will be serving as a testbed for this driverless shuttle in the coming months.
The Agency’s ESTEC establishment in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is working with vehicle owner Dutch Automated Mobility, provincial and municipal governments and bus company Arriva to assess its viability as a ‘last mile’ solution for public transport.
The fully autonomous vehicle calculates its position using a fusion of satellite navigation, lidar ‘laser radar’, visible cameras and motion sensors. Once it enters service in October it will be used to transport employees from one side of the ESTEC complex to the other.
The fully-electric, zero-emission shuttle will respect the on-site speed limit of 15 km/h, and for its first six months of service will carry a steward to observe its operation along its preprogrammed 10-minute-long roundtrip.
Come visit ESTEC during our annual ESA Open Day on Sunday 6 October. Find out more here.
Credits: ESA–B. Smith
At the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, John McFall returned to his roots – not as a competitor on the track, but to proudly carry the flag during the opening ceremony.
At the Paris Paralympic Opening Ceremony, John carried the flag alongside French Paralympic champion Damien Seguin, marking a symbolic moment in his remarkable journey from the athletics track to the frontiers of space exploration.
John’s journey has been extraordinary. After losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident at the age of 19, he went on to become a British Paralympic sprinter. His athletic career eventually led him to medicine, where he qualified as a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon. In 2022, John took on a new challenge when he was selected as part of ESA’s astronaut reserve, joining the latest class of European astronauts.
As a participant in ESA’s Fly! feasibility study, John is at the forefront of breaking new ground. The initiative is focused on exploring how astronauts with physical disabilities, like himself, can participate in long-duration missions to the International Space Station (ISS). His involvement in astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre and beyond has been crucial in assessing how an astronaut with a disability would navigate the demands of spaceflight.
The Fly! study is tackling this challenge across five key areas: medical considerations, training protocols, crew support, spacecraft operations, and ISS procedures. To date, the study, expected to conclude in late 2024, has found no significant barriers that would prevent someone with John’s disability from embarking on a six-month mission to the Space Station, demonstrating that space could soon be accessible to all.
Stay tuned for more updates about John and Fly! and listen to our ESA Explores podcast.
Credits: ESA
The European Service Module that will power and propel the Orion spacecraft on its first mission around the Moon is prepared for shipping from Bremen to the United States. The ESM took off in an Antonov An-124 aircraft in the early hours of 5 November and arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on 6 November.
ESA’s European service module will provide power, water, air and electricity to NASA’s Orion exploration spacecraft that will eventually fly beyond the Moon with astronauts. The European Service Module is now complete for Orion’s first mission that will do a lunar flyby without astronauts to demonstrate the spacecraft’s capabilities.
Learn more about Orion and Europe’s involvement here. Follow the latest updates via the Orion blog.
Credits: NASA–Rad Sinyak, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Just as there are a variety of small bodies traversing space, scientists have a number of different names for them. This handy infographic illustrates what’s what in the fascinating world of space rocks.
Credits: ESA
The Crew Dragon capsule carrying ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron home from the International Space Station splashed down off the coast of Florida, USA, on Friday 6 May 2022 at 05:43 BST/06:43 CEST.
Its return marks the end of Crew-3’s almost six-month stay in orbit and the end of Matthias’s first mission, known as Cosmic Kiss.
Crew-3 undocked from the International Space Station in Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance at 06:20 BST/07:20 CEST Thursday 5 May.
When a Crew capsule splashes down, it is met by nearby ships with experts ready to bring it on board, open the hatch, and welcome the astronauts home. After initial medical checks, the crew is transported by helicopter to shore.
Now that his mission has come to an end, Matthias will return to ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, where he will participate in post-flight debriefings, provide samples for scientific evaluation and readapt to Earth’s gravity with the support of ESA experts.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Ministers and high-level representatives gather for ESA's Ministerial Council in Bremen, Germany.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
A part of the orbital module for the European Space Agency’s reuseable spacecraft Space Rider in the LEAF facility at the Agency’s technical heart in The Netherlands, 25 March 2025.
Space Rider is a versatile reuseable spacecraft about the size of two minivans that allows for all kind of missions, from pharmaceutical research to visiting orbital platforms and more. After missions that can last up to three months, Space Rider returns to Earth, and precision-lands on skids after a paraglider descent.
While in orbit Space Rider relies on a Vega-C rocket fourth stage called AVUM+ (Attitude Vernier Upper Module) with a new element built by Beyond Gravity for Avio, called ALEK (AVUM Life Extension Kit). The rocket fourth stage provides propulsion to move and orient the spacecraft and the ALEK provides electricity and other services needed for the orbital life of the vehicle with two solar panel wings. Together these elements make up the expendable orbital module that separates from the Space Rider reentry module before its return to Earth.
ALEK’s structure spent two months at ESA’s testing facility being put through the full range of mechanical tests and stresses it will experience when launched on a Vega-C rocket.
ALEK visited the largest acoustic chamber in Europe, capable of reproducing the deafening roar of a rocket launch. Here the loudspeakers were turned up to the max and the structure held its own while being bombarded with loud rumbles and noise.
The largest European facility of its kind, ESA's Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) is a test chamber measuring 11 m wide by 9 m deep and 16.4 m high. Its walls are made of steel-reinforced concrete 0.5 m thick to contain the sound and are coated with a thick coating of epoxy resin to reduce noise absorption and increase internal reverberation.
One wall is fitted with noise horns of the same basic design as those seen in stereo speakers which can produce noise equivalent to multiple jet aircraft lifting off simultaneously from 30 metres away.
Credits: ESA–S. Muirhead
The James Webb Space Telescope was transferred to the final assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 7 December 2021, to meet its Ariane 5 launch vehicle.
Stowed inside a special 23-tonne transport container, Webb was protected and monitored throughout the transfer.
Ariane 5 was already moved to the same building on 29 November. Here, adjustable platforms allow engineers to access the launch vehicle and its payload.
The next steps are to hoist Webb to the upper platform which has been prepared so that Webb can be integrated on Ariane 5’s upper stage and then encapsulated inside Ariane 5’s specially adapted fairing.
Webb is scheduled for launch on 22 December from Europe’s Spaceport. Ground teams have already successfully completed the delicate operation of loading the spacecraft with the propellant it will use to steer itself while in space.
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 and interactive brochure.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P Piron
This test facility at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, was used to simulate the high-radiation environment surrounding Jupiter to prepare for ESA’s JUICE mission to the largest planet in our Solar System.
All candidate hardware to be flown in space first needs to be tested against radiation: space is riddled with charged particles from the Sun and further out in the cosmos. An agreement with CERN gives access to the most intense beam radiation beams available – short of travelling into orbit.
Initial testing of candidate components for ESA’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, JUICE, took place last year using CERN’s VESPER(Very energetic Electron facility for Space Planetary Exploration missions in harsh Radiative environments) facility.
VESPER’s high energy electron beamline simulated conditions within Jupiter’s massive magnetic field, which has a million times greater volume than Earth’s own magnetosphere, trapping highly energetic charged particles within it to form intense radiation belts.
Due to launch in 2022, JUICE needs to endure this harsh radiation environment in order to explore Callisto, Europa and Ganymede – moons of Jupiter theorised to hide liquid water oceans beneath their icy surfaces. JUICE is being built by Airbus for ESA, with construction of its spacecraft flight model due to begin next month.
Last month ESA and CERN signed a new implementing protocol, building upon their existing cooperation ties.
Signed by Franco Ongaro, ESA’s Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality, and Eckhard Elsen, CERN Director for Research and Computing, this new agreement identifies seven specific high-priority projects: high-energy electron tests; high-penetration heavy-ion tests; assessment of commercial off-the-shelf components and modules; in-orbit technology demonstration; ‘radiation-hard’ and ‘radiation-tolerant’ components and modules; radiation detectors monitors; and dosimeters and simulation tools for radiation effects.
“The radiation environment that CERN is working with within its tunnels and experimental areas is very close to what we have in space,” explains Véronique Ferlet-Cavrois, Head of ESA’s Power Systems, EMC & Space Environment Division.
“The underlying physics of the interaction between particles and components is the same, so it makes sense to share knowledge of components, design rules and simulation tools. Plus access to CERN facilities allows us to simulate the kind of high-energy electrons and cosmic rays found in space. At the same time we are collaborating on flying CERN-developed components for testing in space.”
Petteri Nieminen, heading ESA’s Space Environments and Effects section adds: “Along with JUICE, CERN heavy-energy radiation testing will also be useful for our proposed Ice Giants mission to Neptune and Uranus. The spacecraft may have to be pass through Jupiter’s vast magnetic field on the way to these outer planets, and both worlds have radiation belts of their own.
“And the ability to simulate cosmic rays benefits a huge number of missions, especially those venturing beyond Earth orbit, including Athena and LISA as well as JUICE. It is also a huge interest for human spaceflight and exploration to study radiobiology effects of heavy ion cosmic rays on astronaut DNA. Not to mention that radiation simulations developed in collaboration with CERN help set space environment specifications for all ESA missions.”
Credits: CERN
ESA’s Hera mission lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, on 7 October at 10:52 local time (16:52 CEST, 14:52 UTC).
Hera is ESA’s first planetary defence mission. It will fly to a unique target among the 1.3 million asteroids in our Solar System – the only body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to solve lingering unknowns associated with its deflection.
Hera will carry out the first detailed survey of a ‘binary’ – or double-body – asteroid, 65803 Didymos, which is orbited by a smaller body, Dimorphos. Hera’s main focus will be Dimorphos, whose orbit around the main body was previously altered by NASA’s kinetic-impacting DART spacecraft.
By sharpening scientific understanding of this ‘kinetic impact’ technique of asteroid deflection, Hera should turn the experiment into a well-understood and repeatable technique for protecting Earth from an asteroid on a collision course.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
At 11:12 GMT (13:12 CEST), 6 June 2018, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst was launched into space alongside NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The launch went as planned as the 50-m tall Soyuz rocket propelled the astronauts to their cruising speed of around 28 800 km/h. Within 10 minutes of rising from the pad, the trio travelled over 1640 km and gained 210 km altitude. Every second for nine minutes, their spacecraft accelerated 50 km/h on average.
The spacecraft is an improved model from the last time Alexander was launched into space in 2014 with many technological upgrades to make the spacecraft lighter and more modern. For example, halogen lights have been replaced with LEDs, and newer and larger solar panels increase power generation.
Over the next two days, while circling Earth 34 times, the trio will catch up with the International Space Station where they will spend the next six months. The journey is relatively smooth and quiet after the rigours of launch. With no Internet or satellite phones, the crew relies on radio to communicate at set intervals with ground control.
The German astronaut is a returning visitor to the International Space Station, the first of ESA’s 2009 class of astronauts to be sent into space for a second time. During the second part of his mission Alexander will take over as commander of the International Space Station, only the second time an ESA astronaut will take on this role so far.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The James Webb Space Telescope was fuelled inside the payload preparation facility at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana ahead of its launch on Ariane 5.
Webb’s thrusters will use this propellant to make critical course-corrections after separation from Ariane 5, to maintain its prescribed orbit about one and a half million kilometres from Earth, and to repoint the observatory and manage its momentum during operations.
Fuelling any satellite is a particularly delicate operation requiring setup of the equipment and connections, fuelling, and then pressurisation.
Webb’s propellant tanks were filled separately with 133 kg of dinitrogen tetroxide oxidiser and 168 kg hydrazine. Oxidiser improves the burn efficiency of the hydrazine fuel.
These propellants are extremely toxic so only a few specialists wearing Self-Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble, or ‘scape’ suits, remained in the dedicated fuelling hall for fuelling which took 10 days and ended on 3 December.
The next steps will start soon for ‘combined operations’. This is when specialists working separately to prepare Webb and Ariane 5 will come together as one team. They will place Webb atop its Ariane 5 launch vehicle and encapsulate it inside Ariane 5’s fairing.
Then, no longer visible, Webb, joined with its Ariane 5 launch vehicle will be transferred to the Final Assembly building for the final preparations before launch.
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 and interactive brochure.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P Piron
After it's arrival at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana ahead of launch, the James Webb Space Telescope is unboxed inside a dedicated spacecraft preparation facility where it will be examined to ensure that it is undamaged from its voyage and in good working order.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG - P.Piron
ESA’s CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite mission – Cheops – underwent important testing last year to be ready for launch by the end of 2018.
Cheops will operate from a low orbit circling Earth, taking its power from the Sun. As such, an important focus of the prelaunch testing is qualifying the satellite’s solar arrays and their cells.
The image shows part of the 12 solar cell assemblies in the Vacuum Solar Cell Illumination Facility at ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands.
The cells were heated to high temperatures to reflect what the satellite will experience once in space. In fact, the actual temperatures were scaled in order to accelerate the ageing effects experienced in flight, to represent a 3.5 year mission in just a few months.
The cells spent 2000 hours at 140ºC, 2000 hours at 160ºC and 2090 hours at 175ºC. After the tests, the cells’ maximum power and short circuit current had degraded by less than 2%, clearly below the acceptance criterion of 3%.
As a result of these tests, the Cheops solar arrays and their elements are now ready for the mission.
Once in space, Cheops will measure the density of exoplanets with sizes or masses in the super-Earth to Neptune range. Its data will set new constraints on the structure of planets in this mass range, and therefore also on their formation and evolution.
Read more about last year’s tests: Cheops solar arrays tested and built
Credit: ESA – C. Carreau
Cosmic radiation could increase cancer risks during long duration missions. Damage to the human body extends to the brain, heart and the central nervous system and sets the stage for degenerative diseases. A higher percentage of early-onset cataracts have been reported in astronauts.
Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere protect us from the constant bombardment of galactic cosmic rays – energetic particles that travel at close to the speed of light and penetrate the human body.
A second source of space radiation comes from unpredictable solar particle events that deliver high doses of radiation in a short period of time, leading to ‘radiation sickness’ unless protective measures are taken.
Credits: ESA
The BepiColombo mission to Mercury sits on the launch pad at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, ahead of its scheduled liftoff at 01:45 GMT on 20 October. Watch live
BepiColombo is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers have found new galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster. Their characteristics reveal the growth of galaxies in these large cosmic cities, with the finding that gravitational interactions in these dense regions are not as important as previously thought.
With the use of Webb’s capabilities, astronomers have now sought to better understand this protocluster and to reveal new galaxies within it. Infrared light passes more freely through cosmic dust than visible light, which is scattered by the dust. Webb’s infrared sensitivity allows scientists to observe regions of the Spiderweb that were previously hidden to us by cosmic dust, and to determine to what degree this dust obscures them.
This image shows the Spiderweb protocluster as seen by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera).
[Image description: Hundreds of galaxies appear in this view, which is set against the black background of space. There are many overlapping objects at various distances. They include large, blue foreground stars, some with eight diffraction spikes, and white and pink spiral and elliptical galaxies. Numerous tiny orange dots appear throughout the scene.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Dannerbauer; CC BY 4.0
In time for its summer launch this year, Ariane 6 has arrived at the port of Pariacabo in Kourou, French Guiana – home of Europe’s Spaceport – and is ready to be assembled.
All the elements that make up the rocket are manufactured in mainland Europe and then transported by this novel ship, Canopée (canopy in French). It is the first custom-built transporter to use sails, reducing emissions and saving on fuel by up to 30%, and on this trip, it has travelled for 10 days covering over 7000 km.
The hybrid-propulsion vessel is 121 m long and has 37 m tall sails. Canopée rotates continuously between stop-offs to load each Ariane 6 stage and other parts and ship them across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe’s spaceport.
On this trip, Canopée brings the central core for Ariane 6’s first flight. Having collected the upper stage from Bremen, Germany, Canopée moved on to Le Havre, France, to load the main stage of Ariane 6.
The next-generation cargo ship has been designed for ArianeGroup to meet the complex requirements of Ariane 6 transport – the stages and engines of Ariane 6 are high-tech equipment that require delicate care during transport.
Canopée’s structure is tailored to carry large, fragile loads as well as navigate the shallow Kourou river to Pariacabo harbour. From here the various Ariane 6 components are offloaded and transported by road to the new Ariane 6 launch vehicle assembly building just a few kilometres away.
Here, the launcher stages are unpacked and installed on the assembly line for integration, and finally, liftoff.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Arianegroup/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P.Piron
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has begun the study of one of the most renowned supernovae, SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). Located 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, SN 1987A has been a target of intense observations at wavelengths ranging from gamma rays to radio for nearly 40 years, since its discovery in February of 1987. New observations by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) provide a crucial clue to our understanding of how a supernova develops over time to shape its remnant.
This image reveals a central structure like a keyhole. This center is packed with clumpy gas and dust ejected by the supernova explosion. The dust is so dense that even near-infrared light that Webb detects can’t penetrate it, shaping the dark “hole” in the keyhole.
A bright, equatorial ring surrounds the inner keyhole, forming a band around the waist that connects two faint arms of hourglass-shaped outer rings. The equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots, which appeared as the supernova’s shock wave hit the ring. Now spots are found even exterior to the ring, with diffuse emission surrounding it. These are the locations of supernova shocks hitting more exterior material.
In this image blue represents light at 1.5 microns (F150W), cyan 1.64 and 2.0 microns (F164N, F200W), yellow 3.23 microns (F323N), orange 4.05 microns (F405N), and red 4.44 microns (F444W).
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Matsuura (Cardiff University), R. Arendt (NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center & University of Maryland, Baltimore County), C. Fransson (Stockholm University), J. Larsson (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), A. Pagan (STScI)