View allAll Photos Tagged spacescience
This image shows a dried-up river valley on Mars named Nirgal Vallis. The area outlined by the bold white box indicates the area imaged by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera on 16 November 2018 during orbit 18818.
Credits: NASA MGS MOLA Science Team
ESA astronaut Tim Peake shows the Rt Hon Theresa May, Prime Minister of the UK, around the Space Zone at the Farnborough International Airshow, accompanied by ESA Director General Jan Wörner and Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency Dr Graham Turnock, 16 July 2018
Credits: ESA
This year’s Open Day combined an in-person tour of ESTEC for visitors with disabilities on Saturday 2 October with an online event open to all the following afternoon.
The in-person event was formally opened by Head of ESTEC and ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality Franco Ongaro, André Kuipers and former Dutch Minister for the Disabled Rick Brink.
With overall visitor numbers limited by continuing COVID-19 precautions, the aim was to give people with disabilities (and their carers) a special chance to see ESTEC – including those who might have found it impractical to visit the establishment amid the busy crowds of past Open Days.
Stands were set up by various ESA teams so that visitors could touch and hear, as well as see, space hardware and test equipment. Participants finished their tour with a question and answer session with André about his 204 days living and working in space.
Sunday’s online participants were greeted by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher: “ESA is an Agency made of people, and this is your chance to meet many of those working behind the scenes.”
Highlights included a Q&A with German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, talks on future missions by ESA space scientists, presentations by ESA Education and Human Resources and a talk applying space recycling systems down to Earth – to convert pee into drinkable tea. The event encompassed multiple ESA establishments, including mission control centre ESOC in Germany, Earth observation centre ESRIN in Italy and space applications and telecommunications centre ESCAT in the UK.
Videos from Sunday’s virtual rooms will be available soon. For a full gallery of Saturday’s Open Day, click here.
Credits: ESA - SJM Photography
MetOp-SG-A1 and Sentinel-5 on Ariane 6 ready on the launch pad at the European spaceport in French Guiana ahead of liftoff, planned for 13 August 2025 at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time).
MetOp-SG-A1 is the first in a series of three successive pairs of satellites. The mission as a whole not only ensures the continued delivery of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years, but also offers enhanced accuracy and resolution compared to the original MetOp mission – along with new measurement capabilities to expand its scientific reach.
This new weather satellite also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission to deliver daily global data on air pollutants and atmospheric trace gases as well as aerosols and ultraviolet radiation.
Ariane 6 is Europe’s heavy launcher and a key element of ESA’s efforts to ensure autonomous access to space for Europe’s citizens. Ariane 6 has three stages: two or four boosters, and a main and upper stage. For this flight, VA264, the rocket is used in its two-booster configuration.
Credits: ESA- S.Corvaja
ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is getting ready for launch at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Launch is scheduled on 18 December.
In this picture, taken on 6 December, the Airbus team is performing final checks before lifting the Souyz Arianespace System for Auxiliary Payloads (ASAP-S) and positioning it on the Soyuz Fregat interface ring. The ASAP-S multi-passenger dispenser system will be used to integrate the main passenger, Cheops and the Cubesats into the launcher.
Cheops is ESA’s first mission dedicated to the study of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. It will observe bright stars that are already known to host planets, measuring minuscule brightness changes due to the planet’s transit across the star’s disc.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG/JM Guillon
An artist's impression of the lunar outpost called the Gateway. The Gateway is the next structure to be launched by the partners of the International Space Station.
During the 2020s, it will be assembled and operated in the vicinity of the Moon, where it will move between different orbits and enable the most distant human space missions ever attempted.
Placed farther from Earth than the current Space Station – but not in a lunar orbit – the Gateway will offer a staging post for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Like a mountain refuge, it will provide shelter and a place to stock up on supplies for astronauts en route to more distant destinations. It will also offer a place to relay communications and can act as a base for scientific research.
The Gateway will weigh around 40 tonnes and will consist of a service module, a communications module, a connecting module, an airlock for spacewalks, a place for the astronauts to live and an operations station to command the Gateway’s robotic arm or rovers on the Moon. Astronauts will be able to occupy it for up to 90 days at a time.
A staging outpost near the Moon offers many advantages for space agencies. Most current rockets do not have the power to reach our satellite in one go but could reach the space Gateway. Europe’s Ariane would be able to deliver supplies for astronauts to collect and use for further missions deeper into space – much like mountain expeditions can stock up refuges with food and equipment for further climbs to the summit.
The Gateway also allows space agencies to test technologies such as electric propulsion where Earth’s gravity would interfere if done closer to home. New opportunities for space research away from Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere are planned for the outpost. Its close position will provide rapid response times for astronauts controlling rovers on the Moon.
Credits: ESA/NASA/ATG Medialab
Watching the side of the Sun that’s facing away from Earth, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission witnessed the hyperactive sunspot cluster AR3664 produce the biggest flare yet of the current solar cycle. This was followed by a burst of energetic particles moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light and a large amount of solar material blasting out in a so-called coronal mass ejection.
While most solar observation missions that observe the Sun’s side that’s facing Earth couldn't see this event, the coronal mass ejection was large enough for the ESA/NASA SOHO mission to see it spreading outward from the back of the Sun. If this material had been directed towards Earth, the measurement would have been filled with bright specks made by particles hitting the detector.
This video combines images of the Sun taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory with coronagraph images taken by the SOHO's LASCO C2 (red) and C3 (blue) instruments. The bright spots to the right of the Sun are Jupiter and Venus.
Read more about this solar outburst here
Credits: SOHO (ESA & NASA), NASA/SDO/AIA, JHelioviewer/D. Müller; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
MetOp-SG-A1 has been at Airbus’ facilities in France for around two years where engineers have been carefully integrating its instrument package. These sensors include an infrared sounding interferometer, a radio occultation instrument and a microwave sounder, which use different techniques to measure atmospheric humidity and temperature, along with an instrument that images aerosols and a multispectral visible and infrared imaging radiometer, and the Copernicus Sentinel-5 instrument that provides data on air pollutants.
The photograph shows the satellite in a horizontal position with its instruments facing downwards. The solar panel will be mounted on the front face in few months’ time before the satellite is shipped to the launch site for liftoff in 2025.
Credits: ESA - M. Pédoussaut
The crew of Soyuz MS-13 is officially approved for launch following the final pre-launch State Commission meeting and press conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
All three crewmembers have trained extensively for their mission to the International Space Station. The State Commission meeting is the culmination of this training, where senior spaceflight officials review and certify crewmembers for flight.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA astronaut Drew Morgan and Roscosmos cosmonaut and Soyuz commander Alexander Skvortsov will be launched in their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Saturday 20 July. This date coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and marks the start of Luca’s second space mission known as ‘Beyond’.
While in orbit, Luca will support over 50 European experiments and more than 200 international experiments. He is also expected to perform a number of spacewalks to repair the cooling systems of dark matter hunter, AMS-02.
More information about Luca’s Beyond mission is available on the blog. This will be updated throughout his mission, with updates also shared on Twitter via @esaspaceflight.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
This year’s Open Day combined an in-person tour of ESTEC for visitors with disabilities on Saturday 2 October with an online event open to all the following afternoon.
The in-person event was formally opened by Head of ESTEC and ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality Franco Ongaro, André Kuipers and former Dutch Minister for the Disabled Rick Brink.
With overall visitor numbers limited by continuing COVID-19 precautions, the aim was to give people with disabilities (and their carers) a special chance to see ESTEC – including those who might have found it impractical to visit the establishment amid the busy crowds of past Open Days.
Stands were set up by various ESA teams so that visitors could touch and hear, as well as see, space hardware and test equipment. Participants finished their tour with a question and answer session with André about his 204 days living and working in space.
Sunday’s online participants were greeted by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher: “ESA is an Agency made of people, and this is your chance to meet many of those working behind the scenes.”
Highlights included a Q&A with German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, talks on future missions by ESA space scientists, presentations by ESA Education and Human Resources and a talk applying space recycling systems down to Earth – to convert pee into drinkable tea. The event encompassed multiple ESA establishments, including mission control centre ESOC in Germany, Earth observation centre ESRIN in Italy and space applications and telecommunications centre ESCAT in the UK.
Videos from Sunday’s virtual rooms will be available soon. For a full gallery of Saturday’s Open Day, click here.
Credits: ESA - SJM Photography
ESA’s Euclid mission to aims to investigate dark matter, dark energy and the expanding Universe.
Here the payload module (containing the telescope and instruments) is packed into a thermal tent at Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) in Belgium, after which it was loaded in a large vacuum tank for 60 days where it underwent intensive testing.
It experienced simulated space conditions in vacuum with the structure cooled to -150oC, the same temperature it will operate in once in space.
Credits: ESA
On 22 and 23 November 2022, ESA Member States, Associate States and Cooperating States observers gathered in Paris, France, for the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial Level (CM22). They discussed how to strengthen Europe’s space sector for the benefit of all - including climate change monitoring and mitigation, secure communications under European control and rapid and resilient crisis response, and the ESA budget for the next three years.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
The final preparations for CM25 were made at an ESA Council meeting in Bremen on Tuesday 25 November. Council Chair Renato Krpoun sits next to ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
This image shows Lowell crater on Mars. The region outlined by the bold white box indicates the area imaged by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera during orbits 2640, 2662, 2684, 16895, 18910, 18977, and 18984 (the latter three in December 2018 and January 2019). The ground resolution is approximately 50 m/ pixel and the images cover a region from 274.5° to 283° East and 49° to 54.5° South.
Credits: NASA/JPL (MOLA); FU Berlin.
ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski takes pictures takes pictures of Earth from the European-built, seven-windowed Cupola, orbiting 400 kilometres above the planet.
During the Ignis mission, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski conducted 13 experiments proposed by Polish companies and institutions and developed in collaboration with ESA, along with three additional ESA-led experiments. These covered a broad range of areas including human research, materials science, biology, biotechnology and technology demonstrations.
The Ax-4 mission marks the second commercial human spaceflight for an ESA project astronaut. Ignis was sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT) and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA).
Credits: Axiom Space/Peggy Whitson
This annotated image from ESA’s Mars Express shows the wrinkled surroundings of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano not only on Mars but in the entire Solar System. This feature, created by previous landslides and lava-driven rockfalls, is named Lycus Sulci.
This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 18 January 2023. It was created using data from the nadir channel, the field of view aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, and the colour channels of the HRSC.
North is to the right. The ground resolution is approximately 19 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 28°N/212°E.
Image description: This tan-coloured slice of Mars is largely covered by wrinkled, crumpled terrain, stretching from the bottom left of the frame towards the top right. There is a notable divide towards the left, where a newer concentric ring of material has overlaid the previous landscape and so sits at higher relief. These two patches of wrinkled ground, both crated by landslides, are labelled in this annotated image. A lone crater is visible to the right of the frame on a smooth and unwrinkled patch of ground, while a fracture in the terrain is seen to the left (labelled).
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) lifted off on a H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 08:42 JST / 00:42 BST / 01:42 CEST on 7 September 2023. The successful launch marks the beginning of an ambitious mission to explore the growth of galaxy clusters, the chemical make-up of the Universe, and the extremes of spacetime.
XRISM is a collaboration between JAXA and NASA, with significant participation from ESA.
“I would like to extend my congratulations to JAXA for this successful launch,” says Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science. “I wish the mission team the best of luck getting XRISM to its operating orbit around Earth and preparing it for science observations.”
ESA and European institutions contributed scientific guidance and vital technologies to XRISM, including for the scientific instruments and for the systems that keep XRISM pointing and oriented correctly. In return for these contributions, ESA will be allocated 8% of XRISM’s available observing time. This will enable European scientists to propose cosmic targets to observe in X-ray light and make breakthroughs in this area of astronomy.
Matteo Guainazzi, ESA XRISM project scientist says: “ESA already has a strong legacy and presence in high energy astronomy. Our XMM-Newton and Integral missions have been studying the Universe in X-rays and gamma-rays for over two decades, and we are currently planning the Athena mission. With this experience, we have been able to make important contributions to what we expect will be a very productive XRISM mission.”
Whilst XMM-Newton remains an excellent observer of lower-energy X-rays, XRISM has been optimised to observe large diffuse structure in the cosmos (such as galaxy clusters), with an unprecedented ability to distinguish the ‘colours’ of higher-energy X-ray light. By combining observations from the two observatories, we will have complementary measurements that reveal a more complete picture of the hot and energetic Universe. Astronomers that request observing time with XRISM may in the future be offered observing time on XMM-Newton.
Looking further ahead, XRISM will lay the path for ESA’s Athena mission, currently under study and set to be the largest X-ray observatory ever built. XRISM will provide the first high-resolution spectroscopy X-ray measurements of objects in the nearby Universe; Athena will build upon these discoveries to observe more distant objects, at the epoch when the largest gravitationally bound structure in the Universe formed, or when the first super-massive black holes at the centres of galaxies became active. XRISM’s first-of-its-kind Resolve instrument will act as an important technology demonstrator for Athena.
Matteo adds: “As ESA project scientist, I am thrilled by all the exciting science promised by XRISM. As a researcher I am personally looking forward to accurately measuring the physical properties of outflows from super-massive black holes at the centres of galaxies, and discovering how they regulate the formation of stars within that galaxy.”
Once XRISM reaches its operating orbit 550 km above Earth’s surface, scientists and engineers will begin a ten-month phase of testing and calibrating the spacecraft’s scientific instruments and verifying the science performance of the mission. XRISM will then spend at least three years observing the most energetic objects and events in the cosmos based on proposals elaborated by scientists all over the world.
Credits: JAXA
This view from the context camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter transects the landing ellipse for the ESA-Roscosmos rover and surface platform mission.
The image is centred at 18.209ºN/335.586ºE.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
This image shows the location of a region in the Nereidum Mountain Range in the southern hemisphere of Mars with respect to the wider geography of the Argyre Impact Basin. Some 370 km to the southeast is the large Hooke crater. Sumgin crater is located to the north. The image, centered around 312° E, 5° S, was acquired during Mars Express orbit 14709 in 2015 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).
Credits: NASA MGS MOLA Science Team
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet documents field exploration in the lunar-like landscapes of Lanzarote, Spain.
The engineers behind the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC) worked with ESA to put the new camera through its paces during the PANGAEA training programme.
Capturing images will be key for documenting scientific discoveries during future Moon missions. One objective during PANGAEA was to select the most suitable lenses.
Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronaut candidate Jessica Wittner and Takuya Onishi from the Japanese space agency used the camera in broad daylight, but also in the darkness of volcanic caves to simulate extreme conditions for lunar photography.
The new lunar camera is built from professional off-the-shelf cameras with great sensitivity to light and state-of-the-art lenses. To prepare it for space, the NASA team made several modifications, including adding a blanket for dust and thermal protection – temperatures range from minus 200 to 120 degrees Celsius on the Moon – as well as a new set of ergonomic buttons for astronauts wearing gloves in bulky spacesuits.
Credits: ESA–A. Romeo
Galileo satellites 31 and 32 were placed in orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket launched 18 September 2024 at 00:50 CEST from Cape Canaveral.
Credits: ESA – S. Corvaja
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 - S. Martin
The BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) has returned its first image of the deployed medium-gain antenna onboard the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO). The actual deployment took place yesterday, and was confirmed by telemetry.
The medium-gain antenna and part of the Sun-illuminated antenna boom is clearly seen at the top left; the cone-shaped antenna points to the right. At the very top right of the image the honeycomb structure of the MTM is visible, where the camera is mounted and looks out into space. One of the hold-down release mechanisms of the MTM solar array is also seen – this is the cone-like structure facing down. A glimpse of the MPO is seen in the background; its white multi-layered insulation is overexposed in the image. A section of one of the solar arrays of the MTM is seen at the bottom of the image, together with a hold-down bracket on the yoke.
The transfer module is equipped with three monitoring cameras, which provide black-and-white snapshots in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution. This image was taken by the ‘M-CAM 2’ camera (click here to see the location and field of view of all three monitoring cameras.)
The monitoring cameras will be used on various occasions during the cruise phase, notably during the flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury. While the MPO is equipped with a high-resolution scientific camera, this can only be operated after separating from the MTM upon arrival at Mercury in late 2025 because, like several of the 11 instrument suites, it is located on the side of the spacecraft fixed to the MTM during cruise.
BepiColombo launched at 01:45 GMT on 20 October on an Ariane 5. BepiColombo is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. It is the first European mission to Mercury, the smallest and least explored planet in the inner Solar System, and the first to send two spacecraft to make complementary measurements of the planet and its dynamic environment at the same time.
Credits: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Cheops (CHaracterising ExOPlanet) spacecraft in the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) test chamber at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on 7 September, 2018.
The Cheops spacecraft is currently undergoing a series of acoustic testing.
Cheops will observe bright stars known to host exoplanets, in particular Earth-to-Neptune-sized planets, anywhere in the sky. It will study the dip in brightness of a star as a planet transits in front of it, allowing the size of these planets to be determined. Combined with mass measurements already calculated from other observatories, Cheops will enable the planet’s density to be determined, and thus make a first-step characterisation of the nature of these worlds.
Credits: ESA - G. Porter
The Copernicus Sentinel-3B satellite is now sealed from view inside the Rockot fairing.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Two titanium plaques etched with thousands of miniaturised drawings made by children have been fixed to the CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite, Cheops. Each plaque measures nearly 18 cm across and 24 cm high.
The plaques, prepared by a team at the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Burgdorf, Switzerland, were unveiled in a dedicated ceremony at RUAG on 27 August 2018.
Credits: University of Bern – A. Moser
Cities in Emilia-Romagna, a region in northern Italy, have been hit by severe flooding after heavy rainfall over the weekend. The flooding affected Bologna (not pictured), and other cities in the surrounding area including Modena and Reggio Emilia.
Flooded areas across the region are visible in this multi-temporal image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission between 8 and 20 October 2024. The comparison uses an image from 8 October (before the floods) and one from 20 October (after the floods). The blue areas highlight the areas impacted by flooding.
In response, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service has been activated to produce detailed maps of the affected areas. There has also been heavy rain and storms in other parts of Italy, particularly Sicily, where landslides and fallen trees have blocked roads.
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, with its ability to penetrate cloud cover and frequent revisit times, is ideal for flood monitoring, enabling the assessment of flood extent and its impact on people and the environment.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2024), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
From P80 to P160C, this line of solid-propellant rocket motors power the Ariane and Vega family of launch vehicles. This infographic shows how several improvements have been made to the motors and in which rocket they are used.
P160C is a significant upgrade over P120C that is used as a booster on Ariane 6 and as the first stage motor on Vega-C rockets. Packed with over 14 tonnes more solid propellant, the new P160C will provide increased performance, allowing for more or heavier satellites to be launched or farther away in space.
The “P” in its name stands for “Powder”, as the 3.4-m cylinder houses solid propellant. The number 160 designates the 160 tonnes of propellant inside, and the C stands for “Common” as the motor is used on the two launchers.
P160C is being developed by Europropulsion under contract from ArianeGroup and Avio who are developing the Ariane 6 launcher systems and Vega launcher systems for ESA.
Credits: ESA
Ministers from ESA’s Member States, along with Associate Member Slovenia and Cooperating State Canada, gathered in Seville, Spain, 27-28 November 2019, to discuss future space activities for Europe and the budget of Europe’s space agency for the next three years.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The crew of Soyuz MS-13 is officially approved for launch following the final pre-launch State Commission meeting and press conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
All three crewmembers have trained extensively for their mission to the International Space Station. The State Commission meeting is the culmination of this training, where senior spaceflight officials review and certify crewmembers for flight.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA astronaut Drew Morgan and Roscosmos cosmonaut and Soyuz commander Alexander Skvortsov will be launched in their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Saturday 20 July. This date coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and marks the start of Luca’s second space mission known as ‘Beyond’.
While in orbit, Luca will support over 50 European experiments and more than 200 international experiments. He is also expected to perform a number of spacewalks to repair the cooling systems of dark matter hunter, AMS-02.
More information about Luca’s Beyond mission is available on the blog. This will be updated throughout his mission, with updates also shared on Twitter via @esaspaceflight.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
At Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is being fitted into the flight adapter of the Soyuz-Fregat rocket that will lift it into space on 17 December.
In this picture, taken on 28 November, Cheops is hoisted above the conic flight adapter while the Airbus team is making sure the satellite orientation is correct before placing it on the flight adapter ring.
Cheops is ESA’s first mission dedicated to the study of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. It will observe bright stars that are already known to host planets, measuring minuscule brightness changes due to the planet’s transit across the star’s disc.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG/J Odang
On 2 June 2003, ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft headed off to explore our red-hued neighbouring planet. In the 15 years since, it has become one of the most successful missions ever sent to Mars. To mark this milestone comes a striking image of Mars from horizon to horizon, showcasing one of the most intriguing patches of the martian surface and demonstrating the capabilities of the groundbreaking mission.
This view, taken by Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera, shows the region of Tharsis in all its glory. It sweeps from the planet’s upper horizon — marked by a faint blue haze at the top of the frame — down across a web of pale fissures named Noctis Labyrinthus, part of Valles Marineris, two out of four great volcanoes, and finishes at the planet’s northern polar ice cap (in this perspective, North is to the lower left).
Tharsis was once an incredibly active region, displaying both volcanism and the shifting crustal plates of tectonics, and hosts most of the planet’s colossal volcanoes. Visible here are the volcanoes Pavonis Mons (top right), Ascraeus Mons (top middle), Alba Mons (to the bottom left), and a small sliver of Olympus Mons (to the lower right, continuing out of frame), the troughs and fissures that comprise the canyon system Valles Marineris, and the web-like Noctis Labyrinthus that sits at the canyon system’s western end.
This image was acquired by the HRSC on 12 October 2017 during Mars Express Orbit 17444. The ground resolution in the centre of the image is approximately 1 km/pixel and the images are centred at 245°E/25°N. The colour image was created using data from the HRSC’s nadir (aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars) and colour channels.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The National Space Centre in Leicester is the UK’s largest visitor attraction dedicated to space science and astronomy. Opened in 2001, the centre was designed by architect Nicholas Grimshaw, whose striking 42-metre high “Rocket Tower” has become an iconic part of the city’s skyline. The tower houses upright examples of real rockets, including a Thor Able and Blue Streak, making it one of the only places in Britain where you can stand beneath full-scale space launch vehicles.
Inside, the centre features six interactive galleries that explore everything from the history of space exploration to the future of interplanetary travel. Visitors can see genuine spacecraft, satellites, and suits worn by astronauts, including the space suit of Britain’s first astronaut, Helen Sharman. A highlight is the Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium, the UK’s largest domed planetarium, which offers immersive shows about the universe.
The centre also plays a role in education and research, working with schools, universities, and industry to promote STEM subjects and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Since its opening, it has welcomed millions of visitors, becoming both a landmark of Leicester and a national hub for those fascinated by the mysteries of space.
The P120C boosters of the second Ariane 6 to launch were transported from the booster storage building to the launch pad at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, on 13 January 2025.
The P120C is 13.5 m long and 3.4 m in diameter, contains 142 tonnes of solid propellant and provides a maximum thrust of 4615 kN (in vacuum) over a burn time of about 135 s. It is the largest-ever solid rocket motor built in one piece. For the next launch, two P120Cs will be strapped onto Ariane 6 as boosters for liftoff.
Ariane 6 is Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The rocket provides Europe with greater efficiency and an ensures access to space for the benefits of humankind, allowing for all types of missions from exploration to navigation, science and communications.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/ArianeGroup/Optique Vidéo du CSG–E. Prigent
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter’s main science mission began at the end of April 2018, just a couple of months before the start of the global dust storm that engulfed the planet. TGO followed the onset and development of the storm and monitored how the increase in dust affected the water vapour in the atmosphere.
TGO made the first high-resolution solar occultation measurements with its two spectrometers ACS and NOMAD, by looking at the way sunlight is absorbed in the atmosphere to reveal the chemical fingerprints of its ingredients. This enabled the vertical distribution of water vapour and ‘semi-heavy’ water, to be plotted from close to the martian surface to above 80 km altitude – important for understanding the history of water at Mars over time.
The new results track the influence of dust in the atmosphere on water, and provide further insight into the escape of hydrogen atoms into space. The instruments also recorded dust and ice clouds appearing at different altitudes, and a quick enhancement of water vapour in the atmosphere.
Credits: ESA; spacecraft: ATG/medialab; data: A-C Vandaele et al (2019)
Ministers from ESA’s Member States, along with Associate Member Slovenia and Cooperating State Canada, gathered in Seville, Spain, 27-28 November 2019, to discuss future space activities for Europe and the budget of Europe’s space agency for the next three years.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
A female volunteer gets comfortable in her waterbed, as the dry immersion study to recreate some of the effects of spaceflight on the body kicks off this week in Toulouse, France. Called Vivaldi, or Validation of the Dry Immersion, the campaign features all female-participants in a European first.
Immersion begins when water covers the subject above the thorax, immobilised with legs and trunk covered with a cotton sheet. Only the arms and head remain free outside the tarp.
As a result, the body experiences ‘supportlessness’ – something close to what astronauts feel while floating on the International Space Station.
In weightlessness, astronauts’ bodies lose muscle and bone density, vision changes and fluids shift to the brain. Finding ways to stay healthy in orbit is a large part of human spaceflight research.
Volunteers spend almost 24 hours a day in the immersion tank, limiting their movements as much as possible. Each day starts at 7 am with urine and blood samples, followed by scientific protocols and measurements to study how the body adapts.
All activities from leisure to hygiene are done within the constraints of immersion. Only a small pillow is allowed during meals to ease eating. Showering and transfer to other experiments are done outside of the tank while lying on their backs and with their head tilted 6 degrees down to minimise fluid shifts.
The results from this type of research do not only benefit astronauts but have implications for patients on Earth with similar disorders and elderly people.
This is the only the second time a dry immersion campaign takes place with all-female participants, and it is a first for Europe. ESA decided to launch the study to address the gender gap in science data.
Credits: Medes
Ministers from ESA’s Member States, along with Associate Member Slovenia and Cooperating State Canada, gathered in Seville, Spain, 27-28 November 2019, to discuss future space activities for Europe and the budget of Europe’s space agency for the next three years.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
ESA astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Matthias Maurer were among the distinguished guests at the official inauguration of LUNA, Europe’s ‘Moon on Earth’ analogue facility, on 25 September 2024 in Cologne, Germany. This innovative facility, operated by ESA and the German Aerospace Agency (DLR), is designed to replicate the lunar surface and will play a crucial role in preparing astronauts for future missions to the Moon, including NASA’s Artemis programme.
LUNA features a 700-square-metre area covered in ‘regolith simulant,’ allowing astronauts and engineers to test space technology, conduct research, and simulate lunar operations in realistic conditions. With this state-of-the-art facility, Europe is at the forefront of space exploration, providing essential insights for upcoming lunar missions and beyond.
Credits: DLR/ESA
Ministers from ESA’s Member States, along with Associate Member Slovenia and Cooperating State Canada, gathered in Seville, Spain, 27-28 November 2019, to discuss future space activities for Europe and the budget of Europe’s space agency for the next three years.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
ExoMars is a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos. The rover is part of the 2020 mission, landing on Mars with a surface science platform in 2021.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano announced the name of his second mission and logo during an event at ESA’s ESRIN establishment in Italy on 27 September 2018. Luca will be going ‘Beyond’ when he returns to the International Space Station in 2019 as part of Expedition 60/61, alongside Andrew Morgan of NASA and Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos.
The event coincided with Luca’s birthday and the anniversary of 50 years of ESRIN, ESA’s centre for Earth observation in Frascati, near Rome. ESRIN is one of the agency’s main specialised centres in Europe, and its founding ceremony took place on 27 September 1968.
Luca was the first of the 2009 astronaut class to fly to the Space Station. His first mission Volare, meaning 'to fly' in Italian, took place in 2013 and lasted 166 days, during which time Luca conducted two spacewalks and many experiments that are still running today.
Credits: ESA - M. Valentini
The 11th annual ESA Open Day at ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, took place on the weekend of 1 and 2 October 2022. On 1 October, visitors with disabilities had the opportunity to follow the tour at their own pace. On both days visitors were able to meet astronauts, space scientists and engineers and learn all about the work carried out at Europe’s largest space establishment.
Credits: G. Porter
The main focus of the third session of Pangaea is volcanism. Lessons on the first day emphasized types of lavas and volcanoes found across Earth, Mars and the Moon.
ESA’s Pangaea training course prepares astronauts and space engineers to identify planetary geological features for future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.
Leading European planetary geologists share their insights into the geology of the Solar System.
Through Pangaea, Europe is developing operational concepts for surface missions where astronauts and robots work together, among themselves and with scientists and engineers on Earth, using the best field geology and planetary observation techniques.
Stay tuned on the blog
Credits: ESA–A. Romeo
The 9th high-level EU/ESA Space Council, with the theme 'Space as an enabler', took place on Tuesday, 28 May, in the Lex Building of the European Commission in Brussels. Brussels. Ministers discussed European Space Policy, strengthening Europe's role as a global actor in the field of space, and highlighted how research and innovation are a driving force for a more competitive European Union.
Credits: European Union
Ministers from ESA’s Member States, along with Associate Member Slovenia and Cooperating State Canada, gathered in Seville, Spain, 27-28 November 2019, to discuss future space activities for Europe and the budget of Europe’s space agency for the next three years.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
This is one of a series of images taken by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 8 January 2025 as the spacecraft sped by for its sixth and final gravity assist manoeuvre at the planet.
Monitoring camera 2 (M-CAM 2) took this photo at 07:17 CET, when the spacecraft was about 2103 km from the planet’s surface. The spacecraft’s closest approach of 295 km took place on the planet's night side at 06:59 CET.
The bright patch near the planet's upper edge in this image is the Nathair Facula, the aftermath of the largest volcanic explosion on Mercury. At its centre is a volcanic vent of around 40 km across that has been the site of at least three major eruptions. The explosive volcanic deposit is at least 300 km in diameter.
Nathair Facula is a major target for several BepiColombo instruments, which will measure the composition of the erupted material. This will teach us about what Mercury is made of, and how the planet formed.
Also visible is the relatively young Fonteyn crater, which formed a ‘mere’ 300 million years ago. Its youth is apparent from the brightness of the impact debris that radiates out from it. Older material on Mercury's surface has become much darker from weathering as it aged.
Rustaveli, seen roughly in the centre of Mercury in this image, is about 200 km in diameter. Within its rim is a ring of peaks, making it a so-called peak ring basin. These peaks barely poke above smooth material on Rustaveli’s floor, which suggests the crater has been flooded by lava.
Interestingly, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft detected a magnetic signal coming from Rustaveli. When molten rock such as lava or impact melt solidifies, magnetic carriers within it align with the direction of the planet's magnetic field. As the planetary magnetic field naturally changes over time, eventually the 'locked in' magnetic field in the planet's crust no longer agrees with the planetary magnetic field, something that can be detected from space. BepiColombo's two magnetometer instruments will investigate this further.
In the foreground of the image, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s medium gain antenna (top centre) and magnetometer boom (right) are visible.
[Technical details: This image of Mercury's surface was taken by M-CAM 2 onboard the Mercury Transfer Module (part of the BepiColombo spacecraft), using an exposure time of 4 millseconds. Taken from a distance of around 2103 km, the surface resolution in this photograph is around 2330 m/pixel. The image has been lightly processed; its brightness and contrast have been adjusted.]
[Image description: Planet Mercury in the background with its grey, cratered, pockmarked surface. In the foreground are some spacecraft parts.]
Credits: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This colour-coded topographic view shows a crater named Ismenia Patera within Arabia Terra, an intriguing part of Mars’ surface thought to have once hosted significant volcanic activity.
Scientists remain unsure of exactly how Ismenia Patera formed; it may be the result of a meteorite smashing into the surface of Mars and forming an impact crater, or the collapsed remnants of a once-massive supervolcano.
This topographic view is based on a digital terrain model of Arabia Terra, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived, and observations taken on 1 January 2018 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. It shows the area in relief; as shown in the overlaid bar to the top right, purple and blue shades represent low depressions, while red–orange shades mark higher parts of the surface (values are displayed on the scale). The ground resolution is about 17 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 39°N / 2°E.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
At the centre of these side-by-side images is a special class of star used as a milepost marker for measuring the Universe’s rate of expansion — a Cepheid variable star. The two images are very pixelated because each is a very zoomed-in view of a distant galaxy. Each of the pixels represents one or more stars. The image from the James Webb Space Telescope is significantly sharper at near-infrared wavelengths than Hubble (which is primarily a visible-ultraviolet light telescope). By reducing the clutter with Webb’s crisper vision, the Cepheid stands out more clearly, eliminating any potential confusion. Webb was used to look at a sample of Cepheids and confirmed the accuracy of the previous Hubble observations that are fundamental to precisely measuring the Universe’s expansion rate and age.
[Image description: A horizontal two-panel image of pixelated, black-and-white star fields. The left image is labelled Webb Near-IR and has a few dozen points of light of varying brightness. At the centre of the image, one bright point is circled. The right image is labelled Hubble Near-IR and has more indistinct, blurry patches whose overall brightness is similar to the more defined regions in the left image. At the centre, a light grey pixel is circled.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Riess (JHU/STScI)
Euclid is a fully European-designed mission, built and operated by ESA. Through developing and implementing the Euclid mission, ESA has been leading a global collaboration that is bringing socio-economic benefits to Europe and the rest of the world. These benefits are set to continue once the mission has launched.
Within this global collaboration, the Euclid Consortium is responsible for providing the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA also contributed to the instruments, e.g. overall development coordination, the development of the near-infrared detector for the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) and the flight detectors for the Visual Instrument (VIS). NASA provided the flight near-infrared detectors of NISP.
The Euclid project involved the collaboration of more than 300 institutions and 80 companies from 21 countries, and it has been made possible by the work and dedication of more than 3500 people: scientists, engineers, technicians, and administrative staff. To build and operate Euclid, 140 industrial contracts were signed.
The total cost of the mission is approximately 1.4 billion euros, including launch and six years of nominal science operations.
Euclid is ESA’s space telescope designed to explore the dark Universe. The mission will create the largest, most accurate 3D map of the Universe ever produced across 10 billion years of cosmic time. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how large-scale structure is distributed across space and time, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
Credits: ESA (acknowledgement: work performed by ATG under contract to ESA), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO