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The Smile spacecraft will be launched into space on a Vega-C rocket in spring 2026. In September 2025, engineers checked that the spacecraft fits the adapter that will connect it to the rocket. They confirmed that the interface works as expected, and nothing has warped during the spacecraft’s testing phase.
Read more about the final stages of the Smile test campaign
Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
[Image description: Close-up of part of a spacecraft inside a cleanroom. The upper section is wrapped in shiny gold thermal foil, while the lower section is a dark cylindrical structure. A metal ring connects the two parts. In the background, there are workbenches with tools, monitors, and cleanroom equipment.]
Credits: ESA-M.Roos
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
On 24 April 2024 the central core for Europe’s new rocket Ariane 6 that will fly to space for the first time was moved upright on the launch pad.
Four automated vehicles transported the Ariane 6 central core, that consists of the main and upper stage, from the launcher assembly building to the launch pad that is about 800 meters away.
Once at the launch pad, choreographed movements by two of the automated vehicles and a crane equipped with a lifting beam, raised the central core to its vertical launch position and placed it on the launch table. It was then rotated so that the stages’ fluid connections were positioned opposite the launch pad umbilicals that will supply the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel for launch.
The mobile building surrounding Ariane 6 is a 90-metre-high metallic structure that rolls away on rails once assembly is complete to allow Ariane 6 a clear view of the sky and space. The building has platforms for technicians to further assemble Ariane 6 while also protecting the rocket until it is ready for launch.
Ariane 6 is Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – will provide Europe with greater efficiency and possibility as it can launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight, while its upper stage will deorbit itself at the end of mission.
Credits: ESA-M. Pédoussaut
Following its arrival at Cape Canaveral harbour in Florida, US, the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) Sounder satellite, with the Copernicus Sentinel-4 instrument on board, has been transported safely to the cleanroom at AstroTech facilities.
It has undergone a series of tests and manoeuvres, which were performed to enable the mechanisms of the mission’s Infrared Sounder instrument to be locked and prepared for launch in July 2025. The manoeuvres involved tilting the satellite vertically, back to a horizontal position, then rotating it.
Teams from ESA and OHB are present at the cleanroom and report that the launch campaign is progressing smoothly.
Once in orbit and commissioned, the MTG-Sounder satellites will introduce a groundbreaking infrared sounding capability, enhancing weather prediction accuracy. As Europe’s first-ever infrared sounder in geostationary orbit, the instrument will use interferometric techniques to capture data on temperature, humidity, wind and trace gases in the atmosphere, creating three-dimensional maps of the atmosphere, and revisiting Europe every 30 minutes.
The Sentinel-4 mission is the first mission to monitor European air quality from geostationary orbit for Copernicus. It consists of an ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared imaging spectrometer on board the MTG-Sounder satellites.
Credits: ESA
Solar Orbiter will address big questions in space science to help us understand how our star creates and controls the giant bubble of plasma – the heliosphere – that surrounds the whole Solar System and influences the planets within it. It will concentrate on four main areas of investigation; very broadly:
– Solar wind: What drives the solar wind and the acceleration of solar wind particles?
– Polar regions: What happens in the polar regions when the solar magnetic field flips polarity?
– Magnetic field: How is magnetic field generated inside the Sun and how does it propagate through the Sun’s atmosphere and outwards into space?
– Space weather: How do sudden events like flares and coronal mass ejections impact the Solar System, and how do solar eruptions produce the energetic particles that lead to extreme space weather at Earth?
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA.
Credits: ESA-S.Poletti
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
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
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
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
Rollout to the launch pad of the Soyuz rocket with the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft inside, 4 June 2018. The spacecraft will launch ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst into space alongside NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 6 June.
The 50-m tall Soyuz rocket will propell 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 rocket is rolled to the launch pad on a train, the astronauts are not allowed to see this part of the launch preparation – it is considered bad luck.
This will be Alexander’s second spaceflight, called Horizons. He will also be the second ESA astronaut to take over command of the International Space Station. The Horizons science programme is packed with European research: over 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people on Earth as well as prepare for future space exploration.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
For more than a century, astronomers have categorised galaxies near and far, both by comparing their shapes by eye and precisely measuring their properties with data known as spectra. For example, Edwin Hubble created the Hubble Tuning Fork in 1926 to begin to sort the shapes and sizes of nearby galaxies, showing that many are spirals and ellipticals.
As telescopes’ instruments have become increasingly more sensitive, it is easier to more accurately classify their shapes. New data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have added nuances to astronomers’ classifications. Since Webb observes in infrared light, many more extremely distant galaxies appear in its images. Plus, the images are finely detailed, allowing researchers to identify if there are additional areas of star formation – or confirm they aren’t present.
A science team has recently analysed hundreds of distant galaxies in Webb’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. CEERS intentionally covers much of the same area as the Hubble Space Telescope’s Extended Groth Strip, which was one of the five fields used to create the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). This allowed them to double-check Webb’s results where the telescopes’ observations overlap.
The analysis of Webb’s galaxies was very consistent with galaxies in the Hubble Space Telescope catalogue. The team began their analysis by sorting the galaxies into broad classes based on similar characteristics. (They did not classify each galaxy’s individual appearance since that would require detailed information from data known as spectra.)
They found an array of odd shapes when the Universe was 600 million to 6 billion years old. The galaxy shapes that dominate look flat and elongated, like pool noodles or surfboards. These two galaxy types make up approximately 50 to 80% of all the distant galaxies they studied – a surprise, since these shapes are rare closer to home.
Other galaxies Webb detected appear round but also flattened, like frisbees. The least populated category is made up of galaxies that are shaped like spheres or volleyballs.
Webb’s data also resolved a riddle that was introduced by the Hubble Space Telescope’s observations decades ago. Why do so many distant galaxies appear like long lines? Was there more to the galaxies that didn’t appear in its images? Webb answered this in short order: Hubble hasn’t missed anything.
Why do galaxies have such different shapes early in the history of the Universe? This question remains unanswered for now, but research is underway to better understand how galaxies evolved over all of cosmic time.
[Image description: In the far-left column are two galaxies that have been magnified. The top galaxy appears circular and light pink with a slightly whiter central region and the bottom galaxy is elongated, stretching from top left to bottom right. Thin lines from each magnified galaxy point to their appearances in the broader field. The top galaxy appears as a tiny dot at the upper centre, and the bottom galaxy toward the left. Thousands of galaxies appear across most of this view, which is set against the black background of space. This is a portion of a vast survey known in shorthand as CEERS.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, S. Finkelstein (UT Austin), M. Bagley (UT Austin), R. Larson (UT Austin)
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
ESA's newly selected astronaut candidates of the class of 2022 arrived at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, on 3 April 2023 to begin their 12-month basic training.
The group of five candidates, Sophie Adenot, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Rosemary Coogan, Raphaël Liégeois, and Marco Sieber, are part of the 17-member astronaut class of 2022, selected from 22 500 applicants from across ESA Member States in November 2022.
The astronaut candidates will be trained to the highest level of standards in preparation for future space missions. During basic training, this includes learning all about space exploration, technical and scientific disciplines, space systems and operations, as well as spacewalk and survival training.
This image shows the candidate Pablo Álvarez Fernández on his first day at the European Astronaut Centre, ready to embark on their journey to become certified ESA astronauts.
Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja
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
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
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