NASA Assigns Astronauts to Agency’s SpaceX Crew-4 Mission to Space Station

NASA crew members of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. Pictured from left are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines. NASA has assigned two crew members to launch on the agency’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission – the fourth crew rotation flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. NASA Read More

Solar spacecraft inspires televised art

Dazzling instruments that capture breathtakingly detailed images of the Sun have sparked an artistic collaboration that is airing on primetime television. The video shows how artist Melanie King has reimagined representations of the scientific instruments on board the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft, painted using light-sensitive chemicals and illuminated with ultraviolet light. The result is a Read More

European Space Agency – A cosmic hourglass

This week’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features an impressive portrait of M1-63, a beautifully captured example of a bipolar planetary nebula located in the constellation of Scutum (the Shield). A nebula like this one is formed when the star at its centre sheds huge quantities of material from its outer layers, Read More

ESA Applications – Earth from Space: Valentine Island (Australia)

For Valentine’s Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Valentine Island in northern Western Australia. The tiny Valentine Island, visible in the top-left of the image, measures around 1.6 km in length and around 250 m wide. The island is located in the King Sound, a large gulf and inlet of the Indian Ocean Read More

ESA Mars orbiters support NASA Perseverance landing on February 18

On 18 February, NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will land on the Red Planet ESA’s Mars orbiters – the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express – are supporting the landing TGO will relay important data from Perseverance to Earth as soon as four hours after landing Mars Express is monitoring the local Read More

ExoMars discovers new gas and traces water loss on Mars

Sea salt embedded in the dusty surface of Mars and lofted into the planet’s atmosphere has led to the discovery of hydrogen chloride – the first time the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has detected a new gas. The spacecraft is also providing new information about how Mars is losing its water. A major quest Read More