Europe’s new weather satellite sets sail

The first of Europe’s Meteosat Third Generation satellites is now safely aboard a ship and making its way across the Atlantic to French Guiana where it will be readied for liftoff in December. Once launched into geostationary orbit, 36 000 km above Earth, this new satellite, which carries two new extremely sensitive instruments, will take Read More

Gateway: ESPRIT

In brief ESPRIT is the name for ESA’s elements for the Lunar Gateway, and part of Europe’s contribution to the creation of the international outpost orbiting the Moon. The name is an abbreviation of European System Providing Refueling Infrastructure and Telecommunication, that shows the variety of functions that ESPRIT provides to the lunar Gateway. In-depth Read More

ENAIRE improves flight efficiency by making greater use of continuous descent operations

47% of the approaches authorised in Málaga in 2021 were green, the highest of any major European airportThe airports of Gran Canaria (43%), Palma (38%), Barcelona (36%) and Madrid (28%) also stood out in this metricThis helps save fuel in aircraft and reduces atmospheric emissionsThe average use of "green" descents in Spain between January and Read More

Webb and Hubble capture detailed views of DART impact

Two of the great space observatories, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, have captured views of a unique experiment to smash a spacecraft into a small asteroid. Observations of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact mark the first time that Webb and Hubble were used to simultaneously observe Read More

ESA business boosts small space companies

ESA continues to break down barriers and create more opportunities for small companies to get involved in space. Start-up companies and small enterprises offer agile and bespoke development adding value to Europe’s future space economy. One of the greatest concerns for a startup entering the space domain is securing its first contract. However, by 2020 Read More

Webb’s icy instrument reveals complex structures

These spectacular images feature the spiral galaxy IC 5332, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (left) and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (right). The images display the powerful capabilities that both world-leading space telescopes provide, especially when combining their data. The winding spiral structure of the galaxy IC 5332 is portrayed in amazing Read More

Hera team congratulates NASA asteroid impactors

ESA’s Hera mission team congratulates their counterparts in NASA’s DART mission team for their historic impact with the Dimorphos asteroid. Moving at 6.1 km per second, the vending-machine-sized Double Asteroid Redirect Test spacecraft struck the 160-m diameter asteroid at 01:15 CEST (00:15 BST) in the early hours of Tuesday morning, in humankind’s first test of Read More