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The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022), taking place from 18 to 22 September at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris. A week of lively interactions awaits the world space community, this year under the theme 'Space for @ll'.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
The ELA-4 launch zone at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana is currently undergoing reconstruction in preparation for Europe’s Ariane 6 launch vehicle.
In this image you see the construction of the mobile gantry that will house and protect Ariane 6 before launch.
Work platforms will enable engineers to access the vehicle levels to vertically position Ariane 6’s central core directly on the launch table, add two or four boosters depending on the launch configuration, and integrate the fairing that houses the payload.
A mobile gantry gives engineers better access to the launcher, allowing them to make adjustments without moving the rocket back to the assembly building – unlike Ariane 5, which is moved on a table to the pad on launch day.
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
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
On 19 November 2024 at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, Earth-observer Sentinel-1C and its payload adapter were encapsulated inside the Vega-C rocket fairing that will protect the spacecraft on the launch pad and on its ascent towards space.
Earth-observer Sentinel-1C is set to launch on Vega-C rocket flight VV25. At 35 m tall, Vega-C weighs 210 tonnes on the launch pad and reaches orbit with three solid-propellant-powered stages before the fourth liquid-propellant stage takes over for precise placement of Sentinel-1C into its orbit.
The fairing is a nose-cone that splits vertically in two once the rocket has passed Earth's atmosphere, revealing Sentinel-1C to space.
Carrying advanced radar technology to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface, the ambitious Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission has raised the bar for spaceborne radar.
The mission benefits numerous Copernicus services and applications such as those that relate to Arctic sea-ice monitoring, iceberg tracking, routine sea-ice mapping, glacier-velocity monitoring, surveillance of the marine environment including oil-spill monitoring and ship detection for maritime security as well as illegal fisheries monitoring.
Europe’s Vega-C rocket can launch 2300 kg into space, such as small scientific and Earth observation spacecraft. Vega-C is the evolution of the Vega family of rockets and delivers increased performance, greater payload volume and improved competitiveness.
Credits: ESA - M. Pédoussaut
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
The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft took these images on 30 May 2020. They show the Sun’s appearance at a wavelength of 17 nanometers, which is in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Images at this wavelength reveal the upper atmosphere of the Sun, the corona, with a temperature of around 1 million degrees. EUI takes full disk images (top left) using the Full Sun Imager (FSI) telescope, as well as high resolution images using the HRIEUV telescope.
On 30 May, Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between the Earth and the Sun, meaning that it was closer to the Sun than any other solar telescope has ever been before. This allowed EUI to see features in the solar corona of only 400 km across. As the mission continues, Solar Orbiter will go closer to the Sun and this will increase the instrument’s resolving power by a factor of two at closest approach.
Even before this, however, these images reveal a multitude of small flaring loops, erupting bright spots and dark, moving fibrils. A ubiquitous feature of the solar surface, revealed for the first time by these images, have been called ‘campfires’. They are omnipresent minuature eruptions that could be contributing to the high temperatures of the solar corona and the origin of the solar wind.
The colour on this image has been artificially added because the original wavelength detected by the instrument is invisible to the human eye.
Credits: Solar Orbiter/EUI Team (ESA & NASA); CSL, IAS, MPS, PMOD/WRC, ROB, UCL/MSSL
This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows Lowell crater on Mars. This oblique perspective view was generated using a digital terrain model and Mars Express data gathered during orbits 2640, 2662, 2684, 16895, 18910, 18977, and 18984 by the spacecraft’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). 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. This image was created using data from the nadir and colour channels of the HRSC. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Webb’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) captured this picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Webb identified carbon dioxide on the icy surface of Europa that likely originated in the moon’s subsurface ocean. This discovery has important implications for the potential habitability of Europa’s ocean. The moon appears mostly blue because it is brighter at shorter infrared wavelengths. The white features correspond with the chaos terrain Powys Regio (left) and Tara Regio (centre and right), which show enhanced carbon dioxide ice on the surface.
[Image description: A blue-and-white sphere against a black background is somewhat reminiscent of the famous “Blue Marble” picture of Earth from space. With fuzzy, diffuse edges, this sphere features darker blue patches in most of the northern hemisphere facing the viewer. One, large, crescent-shaped, white patch extends along the left side of the southern hemisphere facing the viewer, and a larger, blobby, white patch covers the middle latitudes of the right side of the southern hemisphere. Lighter blue regions border these white patches in the south.]
Credits:NASA, ESA, CSA, G. Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), S. Trumbo (Cornell Univ.), A. Pagan (STScI)
On 7 July, at the Kryoneri Observatory, located near Athens, a powerful laser beacon has directed toward NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. Though it carries no data, the beacon is designed to be so precisely targeted that the DSOC experiment onboard Psyche can lock onto it and send a return signal back to Earth. That return signal is then captured by the Helmos Observatory, situated 37 km away on a neighbouring mountain peak.
The Ground Laser Transmitter integrates five high-power lasers with ultra-precise steering controllers into a special 20-foot-long container with a lifting platform. This allowed to protect the sensitive equipment from sunlight during the day and lift it into the open after sunset.
Credits: ESA
The Russian Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft that will transport ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano to the International Space Station is rolled out onto launchpad number one at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
This rocket will be launched on Saturday 20 July, marking the start of Luca’s second space mission known as Beyond.
In the lead-up to liftoff, component parts of a Soyuz spacecraft are brought to Kazakhstan to be assembled. Once the rocket is ready, it is loaded onto a train and transported to the launchpad.
The rollout happens in the morning, two days ahead of launch day. It is considered bad luck for the crew to witness this rollout or see the rocket again before the day of their launch, though the rollout is witnessed by the backup crew and support teams.
When the train arrives at its destination on the launchpad, the rocket is put into position. When it is fully lifted, four green arms ensure it is secured correctly for liftoff. These arms will mechanically rotate away to release the rocket at the time of launch.
After the rocket has been secured, the service structure containing the stairs and elevator as well as the umbilical towers that provide fuel and liquid oxygen, are erected.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022), taking place from 18 to 22 September at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris, France. A week of lively interactions awaits the world space community, this year under the theme 'Space for @ll'. The congress will open its doors to the general public on 21 September.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
How methane is created and destroyed on Mars is an important question in understanding the various detections and non-detections of methane at Mars, with differences in both time and location. Although making up a very small amount of the overall atmospheric inventory, methane in particular holds key clues to the planet’s current state of activity.
This graphic depicts some of the possible ways methane might be added or removed from the atmosphere.
One exciting possibility is that methane is generated by microbes. If buried underground, this gas could be stored in lattice-structured ice formations known as clathrates, and released to the atmosphere at a much later time.
Methane can also be generated by reactions between carbon dioxide and hydrogen (which, in turn, can be produced by reaction of water and olivine-rich rocks), by deep magmatic degassing or by thermal degradation of ancient organic matter. Again, this could be stored underground and outgassed through cracks in the surface. Methane can also become trapped in pockets of shallow ice, such as seasonal permafrost.
Ultraviolet radiation can both generate methane – through reactions with other molecules or organic material already on the surface, such as comet dust falling onto Mars – and break it down. Ultraviolet reactions in the upper atmosphere (above 60 km) and oxidation reactions in the lower atmosphere (below 60 km) acts to transform methane into carbon dioxide, hydrogen and water vapour, and leads to a lifetime of the molecule of about 300 years.
Methane can also be quickly distributed around the planet by atmospheric circulation, diluting its signal and making it challenging to identify individual sources. Because of the lifetime of the molecule when considering atmospheric processes, any detections today imply it has been released relatively recently.
But other generation and destruction methods have been proposed which explain more localized detections and also allow a faster removal of methane from the atmosphere, closer to the surface of the planet. Dust is abundant in the lower atmosphere below 10 km and may play a role, along with interactions directly with the surface. For example, one idea is that methane diffuses or ‘seeps’ through the surface in localized regions, and is adsorbed back into the surface regolith. Another idea is that strong winds eroding the planet’s surface allows methane to react quickly with dust grains, removing the signature of methane. Seasonal dust storms and dust devils could also accelerate this process.
Continued exploration at Mars – from orbit and the surface alike – along with laboratory experiments and simulations, will help scientists to better understand the different processes involved in generating and destroying methane.
Credits: ESA
Artist's impression of Heracles landing on the Moon.
ESA is working with the Canadian and Japanese space agencies to prepare the Heracles robotic mission to the Moon in the mid-to-late-2020s. Using the Gateway as a halfway point, a robotic rover will scout the terrain in preparation for the future arrival of astronauts, and deliver lunar samples to Earth.
This mission offers the best and earliest chance to deliver Moon samples to Earth on NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
Goals also include testing new hardware, demonstrating technology and gaining experience in operations while strengthening international partnerships in exploration.
A small lander with a rover inside weighing around 1800 kg in total will land and be monitored by astronauts from the space gateway. An ascent module will take off from the surface and return to the gateway with samples taken by the rover.
Heracles will demonstrate these technologies and prove their value for humans. Later missions will include a pressurised rover driven by astronauts and an ascent module for the crew to return home.
Communications are key, with satellites providing high-speed networks to operate rovers from orbit, including feeding visuals from cameras, control signals to move the cameras, arms and wheels, and transmitting scientific data.
When the ascent module carrying the sample container arrives, the Gateway’s robotic arm will capture and berth it with the outpost’s airlock for unpacking and transfer of the container to Orion and subsequent flight to Earth with returning astronauts.
Heracles is an international programme to use the Gateway to the fullest and deliver samples to scientists on Earth using new technology that is more capable and lighter than previous missions.
Credits: ESA/ATG Medialab
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
This image shows a height map of the martian surface, with lowest land in blue and highest in white. Standing at an impressive 22 km, Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the entire Solar System.
The Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) is an interesting region close to the equator. It consists of a series of massive wind-sculpted deposits measuring hundreds of kilometres across and several kilometres high. Found at the boundary between Mars’s highlands and lowlands, the MFF is possibly the biggest single source of dust on Mars, and one of the most extensive deposits on the planet.
[Image description: Map of Mars showing one entire hemisphere. The map is coloured to show the height of the land. Labels indicate the equator (crossing the centre of the hemisphere), Olympus Mons (a high volcano) and the Medusae Fossae Formation (close to the line indicated by the equator label).]
Credits: ESA
After an extraordinary six-week voyage from northern Norway, the iconic Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl has docked in Nice, France, concluding ESA’s 2025 Advanced Ocean Training Course. Braving everything from wild storms to calm seas, students aboard mastered techniques for collecting ocean measurements and harnessed satellite data to unlock insights into our blue planet. Led by experts, this real-world expedition offered more than education – it sparked curiosity and a deeper commitment to understanding and protecting our oceans.
Credits: ESA/Ocean Media Lab
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 first model of a future Ariane booster and Vega rocket stage is rolled out to its test stand at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, 20 March 2025. This rocket motor, called P160C, is destined to be ignited for its first hot-fire test.
P160C is a significant upgrade over the current 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.
Over 14 m tall P160C is one meter taller than its predecessor and is also one of the largest single-body solid rocket motors in production.
P160C has enough propellant to keep firing for over 2 minutes on launch – and during its test firing on ground. The rocket motor will be used as boosters for an improved version of the Ariane 6 launcher called “Block 2” as well as in in Vega-C and in the next generation Vega rocket, Vega-E.
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.
France’s space agency CNES will conduct the static fire test on its rocket engine test stand at Europe’s Spaceport.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Optique video du CSG–S. Martin
After an extraordinary six-week voyage from northern Norway, the iconic Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl has docked in Nice, France, concluding ESA’s 2025 Advanced Ocean Training Course. Braving everything from wild storms to calm seas, students aboard mastered techniques for collecting ocean measurements and harnessed satellite data to unlock insights into our blue planet. Led by experts, this real-world expedition offered more than education – it sparked curiosity and a deeper commitment to understanding and protecting our oceans.
Credits: ESA/Ocean Media Lab
With liftoff set for 29 April 2025 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on a Vega-C rocket, ESA's Biomass satellite is about to be mated to the launch adapter. The adapter connects the satellite to the Vega-C rocket that will launch it.
Once in orbit, Biomass will deliver novel information about the state of our forests, how they are changing over time, and advance our knowledge of the carbon cycle. It is the first satellite to carry a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar for interferometric imaging. Thanks to the long wavelength of P-band, around 70 cm, the radar signal can slice through the whole forest layer to measure the ‘biomass’, meaning the woody trunks, branches and stems, which is where trees store most of their carbon.
Credits: ESA
This image of Mercury was captured by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 1 December 2024, as the spacecraft approached its fifth of six gravity assist manoeuvres at the planet.
This view was captured at 11:46 CET by the Mercury Transfer Module’s monitoring camera 2 (M-CAM 2), when the spacecraft was over 51 000 km from the planet’s surface, 3 hours 37 minutes before closest approach. The spacecraft’s minimum distance to the surface of 37 626 km was reached at 15:23:41 CET, when none of the three monitoring cameras could view Mercury.
The monitoring cameras provide black-and-white images at 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution. This image has been lightly processed to reduce some banding effects caused by the camera having no mechanical shutter.
When this image was taken, BepiColombo was high over Mercury's northern hemisphere, heading southwards at a speed of 2.8 km/s relative to the planet.
Even at this great distance from the planet, one of the most prominent features of Mercury – a 1550 km-wide impact basin named Caloris Planitia – is visible as a brighter circular feature on the planet's disc. At the time, Caloris was close to local noon. In this view, the north pole of the planet was located on the right, around halfway down the line between day and night.
BepiColombo will pass much closer to Mercury’s north pole during its final flyby of Mercury on 8 January 2025 – its last visit before arriving to enter orbit about the planet in November 2026.
Read more about BepiColombo's fifth Mercury flyby here
Credits: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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
Find out more about how the Soyuz catches up with and rendezvous with the International Space Station.
Credits: ESA
With liftoff set for 29 April 2025 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on a Vega-C rocket, ESA's Biomass satellite is about to be mated to the launch adapter. The adapter connects the satellite to the Vega-C rocket that will launch it.
Once in orbit, Biomass will deliver novel information about the state of our forests, how they are changing over time, and advance our knowledge of the carbon cycle. It is the first satellite to carry a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar for interferometric imaging. Thanks to the long wavelength of P-band, around 70 cm, the radar signal can slice through the whole forest layer to measure the ‘biomass’, meaning the woody trunks, branches and stems, which is where trees store most of their carbon.
Credits: ESA
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
A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the core of quasar 3C 273. A coronagraph on Hubble blocks out the glare coming from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the quasar. This allows astronomers to see unprecedented details near the black hole: weird filaments, lobes, and a mysterious L-shaped structure, probably caused by small galaxies being devoured by the black hole. Located 2.5 billion light-years away, 3C 273 is the first quasar (quasi-stellar object) ever discovered, in 1963.
[Image description: This is a close-up look at the environment around quasar 3C 273 using Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) coronagraph. A black circle blocks the glare of the quasar. Blue-colored filamentary material can be seen near the black hole at the center of its host galaxy. There’s a blue-white smoke-like feature stretching to the 4 o’clock position, an extragalactic jet launched from the quasar.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, Bin Ren (Côte d’Azur Observatory); CC BY 4.0
This portrait of ESA astronaut Wubbo Ockels by Sharon Zijlstra from her Columbus Series was made in June 2018 using Acrylics/Markers in Black & White on Acid-Free 3D linen with triple-coated primer.
Measurements: 70 x 80 cm (27.5" x 31.5")
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
These images show the nitrogen dioxide plume column enhancements from two power plants in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh power plant 8 uses data based on the 60-m Sentinel-2 UB band, while Riyadh power plant 9, uses data based on the 10-m Sentinel-2 B band. The red triangles mark the centre of the emitted facilities.
Credits: ESA (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020/2021); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The first of two boosters that will power the Ariane 6 ‘flight model-1’ into orbit this summer was transported on 25 April 2024 from the booster storage facility in Kourou, French Guiana, to the launch zone. Tomorrow, the second booster will be transported from the booster integration building to join it, and soon after operations will begin to connect both the boosters to the rocket’s central core.
Each P120C booster is filled with 142 tonnes of solid rocket fuel, measures 13.5 metres long and is 3.4 metres wide. Without these, Ariane 6 would not leave the ground. Together, the two boosters will provide the majority of the thrust needed to get Europe’s new rocket into space, firing into action for up to 130 seconds, each providing 4500 kN of thrust and getting Europe’s new rocket out to an altitude of about 70 km.
The P120C boosters will fire up seven seconds after the Vulcain 2.1 main stage engine roars into action, getting Ariane 6 off the ground and then, when depleted of fuel, being ejected from the rocket to leave the main stage engine in charge.
The yellow transporter that carries each booster to the launch site is a remarkable vehicle in itself. With 36 aircraft wheels beneath it – two rows of nine wheels on either side – it can carry a mass of up to 250 tonnes (more than a jumbo jet). Because of this symmetry, it can be driven from both sides and can even make crablike movements as it swivels from side to side.
Ariane 6 is Europe’s newest rocket. A ‘heavy-lift launch vehicle’, it will be able to carry passengers, large and small, into orbit and across the Solar System. Its launch this summer will ensure Europe’s continued independent access to space.
Ariane 6 will be launched from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. It has been designed for all possible futures – at its core is maximum versatility, able to put any satellite or payload into any orbital path. This first flight will see the Ariane 62 configuration launched into orbit. For more massive payloads, the Ariane 64 model can be chosen, with four boosters and double the extra thrust.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Arianegroup/Optique Vidéo du CSG - S.Martin
This stereoscopic image shows a region of Mars known as Australe Scopuli, in the south polar region of the planet. The area is rich in features resulting from the arrival of spring and the retreat of the ice cap.
The image was generated from data captured by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter on 2 April 2024 (orbit 25569). The anaglyph offers a three-dimensional view when viewed using red-green or red-blue glasses.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022), taking place from 18 to 22 September at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris, France. A week of lively interactions awaits the world space community, this year under the theme 'Space for @ll'. The congress will open its doors to the general public on 21 September.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite being prepared for environmental tests at IAGB in Ottobrunn, Germany. The photograph shows engineers making the satellite ready for the shaker test which ensures that the satellite will survive liftoff.
The Arctic Weather Satellite is equipped with a 19-channel cross-track scanning microwave radiometer, which benefits from the heritage technology of the Microwave Sounder developed for the MetOp Second Generation satellites. The instrument will provide high-resolution humidity and temperature soundings of the atmosphere in all weather conditions.
The satellite is actually the forerunner of a potential constellation of satellites, called EPS-Sterna, that ESA would build for Eumetsat if this first prototype Arctic Weather Satellite works well.
Credits: ESA–P. Sebirot
This image shows the edge of a layered mound in Burroughs crater on Mars. It is located about 200 km to the northwest of the northernmost edge of the planet’s south polar ice cap.
The image was taken by the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and captures a strip of the surface measuring about 25 km x 9 km.
The ‘polar layered deposits’ of Mars, as the ice caps are known, are made of layers upon layers of ice and dust that record how the climate of Mars has evolved in the last few million to hundreds of millions of years.
Many of the impact craters that surround the caps have layered mounds that appear similar to the polar layered deposits, and some, particularly in the north, are known to be composed of nearly pure water ice. Layered mounds, like the one imaged here in Burroughs crater, lie close to the south polar deposits, and have been less studied than the layers of the caps.
They may represent remnant ice deposits from past climates when the extent of the polar layered deposits reached to lower latitudes, or they may have been deposited independently, which would mean that they represent an entirely separate record of climate – perhaps extending further back into the history of the Mars.
This particular image shows heavily eroded layers toward the northwestern edge of the Burroughs crater mound (north is up). In this orientation, the top of the image contains the crater wall outside of the mound, which is about 400 km lower in elevation than the bottom of the image and shows the mound’s surface.
Because the CaSSIS instrument takes stereo pairs of images, the elevation differences – also between the layers – can be studied with the resulting digital terrain model.
The image was taken on 16 December 2018 and is centred at 71.8ºS/114.5ºE.
Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Stéphane Israel, CEO of Arianespace, and ESA Director General Jan Wörner, sign a framework contract for the procurement of launch services for European Space Agency missions at the Berlin Air and Space Show, on 26 April 2018.
ILA is one of the world’s largest aerospace trade shows, bringing together the international aerospace community, industry, space agencies and trade visitors interested in discovering the latest aerospace developments and new business opportunities.
Credits: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2018
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
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano signs the door at the Cosmonaut Hotel as is tradition before departing for the Baikonur Cosmodrome ready to be launched to the International Space Station.
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
From 7–11 October 2019 space experts from all over the world convened in Luxembourg for the first Space Resources Week to discuss how best to explore our Solar System sustainably and limit costly transport of resources from Earth. For example, can we produce water and oxygen on the Moon?
Highlights of the conference included research that has extracted water from lunar soil returned to Earth with the Apollo astronauts. Hannah Sargeant of the Open University in the United Kingdom presented her work on heating the oxygen in lunar soil to 1000°C with hydrogen to create water.
Having proven this is possible on Earth, development has started on an instrument to be part of ESA’s Prospect drill that will fly on Luna-27 mission to the Moon. If robots or astronauts could mine for water on the Moon, it could be used to create fuel and oxygen for rockets and life-support.
Using a method called molten salt electrolysis, lunar soil can be turned into a mixture of metal alloys while extracting oxygen. This is another example studied by Beth Lomax’s PhD work at the University of Glasgow. Both the oxygen and metal could be used in future by settlers on the Moon.
The first days of the convention included a professional course with space engineers, scientists, lawyers and economists followed by a space mining summit on the legal, business and technical challenges of resource use.
On the last two days of Space Resource Week ESA organised a workshop together with the Luxembourg Space Agency to plan the steps Europe will take in the next five years. Over 350 participants from a broad range of disciplines including academia, industry, mining and energy companies attended, as well as politicians, entrepreneurs, investors and economists.
“All events were fully-booked, showing an overwhelming interest in the topic,” says Bernhard Hufenbach, lead of ESA’s human and robotic exploration strategy.
“This week is the kick-off for the next era of space exploration, we will not launch everything we need from Earth, but use elements we find on planets and the moons we explore.”
ESA exploration strategist James Carpenter and Mathias Link from the Luxembourg Space Agency announced that Space Resources Week would return next year.
On 18 October 2019 the Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider and ESA Director General Jan Wörner committed to strengthening collaboration in the field of space resources research and innovation, including the announcement of the Luxembourg Space Resources Innovation Centre that will focus on extraction, processing and manufacturing of space resources.
Luxembourg aims to expand this Space Resources Research Centre towards a larger Space Resources Innovation Center with a European and even international scope. In this matter, ESA and Luxembourg will further investigate a close cooperation which will advance their common goals.
Over the last two years, ESA has made significant progress in this field, developing a strategy for space resources and implementing ground-based research, technology and mission definition activities that is part of its Space19+ proposal to member states.
James concludes, “this is just the beginning, humankind is returning to the Moon and we are setting the international collaboration required to do this sustainably and in partnership. We are an inter-disciplinary community of space resource personnel and will convene again next year to review the progress made towards some key breakthroughs, making Europe a leader in this field.”
Credits: ESA–A.Conigli
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
Based on measurements gathered by the Copernicus Sentinel-5P mission between January and April 2019, the image shows high levels of nitrogen dioxide in the Po Valley in northern Italy. Nitrogen dioxide pollutes the air mainly as a result of traffic and the combustion of fossil fuel in industrial processes. It has a significant impact on human health, contributing particularly to respiratory problems.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
At the Airbus integration hall in Bremen, Germany, technicians installed the last radiator on the European Service Module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft marking the module’s finished integration.
ESA’s European service module will provide power, water, air and electricity to NASA’s Orion exploration spacecraft that will eventually fly beyond the Moon with astronauts. The European Service Module is now complete for Orion’s first mission that will do a lunar fly-by without astronauts to demonstrate the spacecraft’s capabilities.
Much like closing the bonnet on a car, with the radiators in place technicians can no longer access the internals of the European service module, symbolically ending the assembly and integration of the module that will fly further into our Solar System than any other human-rated spacecraft has ever flown before.
Credits: ESA–A. Conigli
Engineers working on the integration of the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) of the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission as part of launch preparations at Europe’s Spaceport.
The mission consists of two science orbiters – ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's MMO – and the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), which will use solar electric propulsion to take the two orbiters to the Mercury, along with gravity assist flybys at Earth, Venus and Mercury itself.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Unfolding the ramps that will guide the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover onto the martian surface requires a few engineering tricks. This close-up image of the hinge shows a part of the mechanism that will swing the ramps open on the Red Planet.
Rosalind’s lander has two sets of ramps that the rover will use to drive down and start scouting the once water-rich terrain of Oxia Planum in the search for signs of life.
The three-metre-long ramps will travel folded through millions of kilometres between Earth and Mars. Upon touchdown, a single bolt will trigger the deployment choreography. This release will be one of the mission's most nerve-racking moments after landing on Mars in 2030.
This hinge will enable an automated, synchronised deployment of the ramps. The two linked rollers at the centre of the image will ensure a smooth release. The orange sensor cables threaded below will help confirm the deployment, while the two black carbon fibre tubes on the sides will act as guide rails to prevent the rover for falling off the ramps. The aluminium ramps have a milled pattern to improve grip with the rover's six wheels.
Rocket vibrations, martian winds and solar heat fluxes have been taken into account for the release mechanism. The whole operation will take a maximum of five minutes on Mars.
Watch the hinge in action during a confidence test at Astronika facilities in Poland.
At the recent ESA Ministerial Council in Germany, Member States reaffirmed their strong backing for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission and secured its full funding. With work advancing on schedule, and with NASA’s continued partnership, the mission remains on track for a 2028 launch.
Credits: Astronika
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 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 magnificent galaxy featured in this Hubble Picture of the Week is NGC 1559. It is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Reticulum near the Large Magellanic Cloud, but much more distant at approximately 35 million light-years from Earth. Hubble last visited this object in 2018. The brilliant light captured in this image offers a wealth of information, which thanks to Hubble can be put to use by both scientists and the public.
This picture is composed of a whopping ten different images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, each filtered to collect light from a specific wavelength or range of wavelengths. It spans Hubble’s sensitivity to light, from ultraviolet around 275 nanometres through blue, green and red to near-infrared at 1600 nanometres. This allows information about many different astrophysical processes in the galaxy to be recorded: a notable example is the red 656-nanometre filter used here. Hydrogen atoms which get ionised can emit light at this particular wavelength, called H-alpha emission. New stars forming in a molecular cloud, made mostly of hydrogen gas, emit copious amounts of ultraviolet light which is absorbed by the cloud, but which ionises it and causes it to glow with this H-alpha light. Therefore, filtering to detect only this light provides a reliable means to detect areas of star formation (called H II regions), shown in this image by the bright red and pink colours of the blossoming patches filling NGC 1559’s spiral arms.
These ten images come from six different observing programmes with Hubble, running from 2009 all the way up to the present year. These programmes were led by teams of astronomers from around the world with a variety of scientific goals, ranging from studying ionised gas and star formation, to following up on a supernova, to tracking variable stars as a contribution to calculating the Hubble constant. The data from all of these observations live on in the Hubble archive, available for anyone to use — not only for new science, but also to create spectacular images like this one! This image of NGC 1559, then, is a reminder of the incredible opportunities that the Hubble Space Telescope has provided and continues to provide.
Besides Hubble’s observations, astronomers are using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to research this galaxy in even greater depth. This Webb image from February showcases the galaxy in near- and mid-infrared light.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, tilted at an angle, with irregularly-shaped arms. It appears large and close-up. The centre glows in a yellowish colour, while the disc around it is a bluer colour, due to light from older and newer stars. Dark reddish threads of dust cover the galaxy, and there are many large, shining pink spots in the disc, where stars are forming.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, W. Yuan, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, A. Riess, K. Takáts, D. de Martin & M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble); CC BY 4.0