Category: ESA

by ESA ESA-sponsored medical doctor Nick Smith snapped this photo of the storage containers at Concordia research station in Antarctica shortly before sunset, 8 April 2021. The dark blue line at the horizon is the shadow of the Earth. The containers store food, recycling and the scientific samples of blood, saliva, and stool that Nick Read More

ESA The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Bucharest – the capital and largest city of Romania. Click on the image to explore it in its full 10 m resolution and learn about the features in this stunning landscape. Bucharest lies on the southeast corner of the Romanian Plain, on the banks of the Dâmbovița Read More

ESA / Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, has recently been on explosive form, with 17 eruptions in less than three months. Instruments onboard three different satellites orbiting Earth have acquired imagery of the eruptions – revealing the intensity of the lava-fountaining eruptive episodes, known as paroxysms. Located on the east coast of Sicily, Read More

Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana is preparing Ariane 6's launch pad for extensive ‘combined tests’. These tests will prove the systems that will support Europe's newest launch vehicle before flight. Fin d'integration caisson LOX On the launch pad, engineers are installing the steel mini-mast structures that will protect the liquid oxygen cryogenic connection systems that Read More

ESA Today is 407 Day – the annual campaigning day to spread awareness of the importance of emergency beacons, and the satellites that pick up their signals, including Europe’s Galileo constellation. As well as letting people across the world find their way, Galileo also serves to detect SOS messages and relay them to authorities, contributing Read More

Agency ESA / ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher has worked with our Member States to define new priorities and goals for ESA for the coming years. The Director General has set high ambitions for space in Europe – while ESA has a huge role to play, it also requires cooperation with the European Union, space Read More

ESA ESA Education and Raspberry Pi Foundation are excited to announce that 214 teams participating in this year’s European Astro Pi Mission Space Lab Challenge have achieved Flight Status. That means they will have their computer programs run on the International Space Station (ISS) later this month! Mission Space Lab gives teams of students and Read More

ESA Ariane 6 early combined tests at Latesys in Fos-sur-Mer, in France, have simulated the moment of liftoff when the umbilicals separate from the launch vehicle. These tests are part of the critical path towards the first flight of Europe’s new Ariane 6 launch vehicle. They validate the interfaces and mechanical behaviour during separation of Read More

ESA / With Easter right around the corner, we take a look at four egg-shaped buildings visible from space as captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. Eggs are an ancient symbol of new life, associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring. Decorating eggs for Easter is a tradition that dates back to the 13th century. One Read More

ESA’s M-Argo mission will be the first CubeSat to traverse interplanetary space under its own power. Due to launch in 2024-5, the suitcase-sized spacecraft will travel to a near-Earth asteroid, up to 150 million km away. CubeSats are small, cheap satellites assembled from standardised parts in 10 cm boxes – M-Argo is a 12-unit CubeSat. Read More