Category: ESA

Science & Exploration The specially trained woolly astronaut, Shaun the Sheep, has a seat on the Artemis I mission to the Moon.  Shaun is flying on the Artemis I mission, which is the first flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft with an ESA European Service Module, going around the Moon and back. This mission is not Read More

ce & Exploration The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope just scored another first: a molecular and chemical portrait of a distant world’s skies. While Webb and other space telescopes, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, have previously revealed isolated ingredients of this heated planet’s atmosphere, the new readings provide a full menu of atoms, molecules, Read More

ESA and 22 other European space actors have come together to sign a “Statement for a Responsible Space Sector”. Space exploration has allowed us to look back on our planet in a way that no human could imagine before, revealing a fragile world with limited resources. As today’s statement explains, the responsibility to take care Read More

During Artemis I, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will send the agency’s Orion spacecraft on a trek 40,000 miles beyond the Moon before returning to Earth. To capture the journey, the rocket and spacecraft are equipped with cameras that will collect valuable engineering data and share a unique perspective of humanity’s return to the Read More

ESA’s Investor Network continues to grow, with Einstein Industries Ventures as its latest member via the signature of a collaboration agreement. Over the next ten years, Einstein Industries Ventures’ management team targets a fund worth €300 million to invest in Europe's leading growth-stage New Space downstream technologies, Earth observation and sensor technology. In line with Read More

Astronomy is driven by big questions, and they don’t come much bigger than wondering how the first stars and galaxies began to form – eventually giving rise to our own existence. The answers lie buried in the far distant Universe, so distant that the light traveled billions of years to reach us, carrying the images Read More

Shipping is the most energy efficient form of transport, and more than 80% of goods traded globally are carried via the oceans, with a doubling in volume during the last quarter of a century. Recognising the global need for seamless maritime navigation, ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme, NAVISP – inventing the future of navigation with Read More

Short animation featuring key moments of the Mars Sample Return campaign: from landing on Mars and securing the sample tubes to launching them off the surface and ferrying them back to Earth. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are developing plans for one of the most ambitious campaigns ever attempted in space: bringing the Read More

Over the last four years, ESA’s Aeolus mission has been delivering unique profiles of Earth’s winds from space, improving operational weather forecasts, climate models and more – all showing that its novel laser technology is advancing science and being used for important practical applications. Adding to the list of Aeolus’ successes, a recent report highlights Read More

ESA’s Optical Ground Station, perched high on the slopes of Tenerife’s Mount Teide volcano, has now been peering skyward for a quarter of a century. Originally designed for laser-based communications with satellites, it is today additionally employed for tracking space debris and near-Earth asteroids as well as supporting world-class science: this year’s Physics Nobel Prize Read More