European Space Agency News
Official ESA news feed with updates on European space missions, satellites, launchers, and technology programs.
Week in Images: 16-20 March 2026
The week of March 16‑20, 2026 was marked by a series of striking space‑related images. NASA’s Artemis II rocket returned to its Kennedy launchpad after a second rollout, while ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot captured the first Cupola view of the εpsilon mission and prepared for an EchoFinder session aboard the ISS. Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel‑2 highlighted Norway’s Jostedalsbreen glacier ahead of World Day for Glaciers, and a solar‑flare‑induced magnetic field map illustrated space‑weather activity. Additional visuals featured comet C/2025 K1 and the hoisting of Vega‑C’s fourth stage for the VV29 mission.
T-20 Days: Smile to Launch on 9 April
The European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences will launch the Smile mission on a Vega‑C rocket from French Guiana on Thursday 9 April at 08:29 CEST. The spacecraft will perform the first X‑ray imaging of Earth’s magnetic field and monitor...
ESA Impact: Our Story so Far This Year
In the first quarter of 2026 ESA demonstrated Europe’s autonomous heavy‑lift capability with the successful four‑booster Ariane 6 launch. Copernicus‑3 radar monitored severe flooding in Bordeaux, while astronaut Sophie Adenot joined the International Space Station. A student team prepared a CubeSat...
OHB Sweden to Build Sterna Weather Constellation
The European Space Agency awarded OHB Sweden a contract to build 20 satellites for the EPS‑Sterna weather constellation, with six operational units at any time and two spares. The first six satellites are targeted for launch in 2029, and the...
Smile Arrives at Europe’s Spaceport
The ESA‑CAS Smile spacecraft landed at the Guiana Space Centre on 26 February after a two‑week sea voyage aboard the cargo ship Colibri. Over the next weeks the probe will undergo health checks, propellant loading and integration with the Vega‑C launch...
ESA Analysing Fireball over Europe on 8 March 2026
On 8 March 2026 a bright fireball streaked from southwest to northeast across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, glowing for about six seconds before breaking apart. The meteoroid, estimated to be a few metres in diameter, left a visible trail...
"She Flies Satellites. One Day, I Can Too."
ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) spotlighted five senior women who lead spacecraft missions such as JUICE, EarthCARE, and the ExoMars rover, sharing their daily skills and career paths. They highlight the importance of interpersonal communication, calm decision‑making, and human‑centred...
New AI Hub to Empower Space-Enabled Connectivity
The European Space Agency announced a new AI Hub at its ECSAT campus in Oxfordshire, backed by the UK Space Agency. The facility will provide a testbed for AI‑driven satellite and converged communications, extending the capabilities of ESA’s existing 5G/6G...
Asteroid 2024 YR4 Will Not Impact the Moon
Asteroid 2024 YR4, a 60‑metre near‑Earth object, once carried a 4 % chance of striking the Moon in December 2032. New observations with JWST’s NIRCam in February 2026 precisely measured its orbit, eliminating the lunar‑impact risk. The asteroid will safely miss the Moon by...
ESA’s Mars Orbiters Watch Solar Superstorm Hit the Red Planet
ESA’s Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured the May 2024 solar superstorm’s effects on the Red Planet, revealing unprecedented electron spikes in the upper atmosphere. A radiation monitor on TGO logged a dose equivalent to 200 Earth days in...
World-First Gigabit-per-Second Laser Link Between Aircraft and Geostationary Satellite
European Space Agency, Airbus Defence and Space, TNO and TESAT have demonstrated the world’s first gigabit‑per‑second laser link between a moving aircraft and a geostationary satellite. During test flights over Nîmes, the UltraAir optical terminal maintained an error‑free 2.6 Gbps connection...
Meet ESA Astronaut Sophie Adenot | Εpsilon Mission
The video profiles ESA astronaut candidate Sophie Adenot, who has been assigned to the agency’s upcoming εpsilon mission. Born in Burgundy, France, Adenot narrates how a childhood fascination with adventure and exploration evolved into a concrete goal of reaching space. Adenot...
Smile Sets Sail for Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana
The ESA‑China SMILE spacecraft has completed its Atlantic crossing and arrived at Kourou’s Europe’s Spaceport, ready for integration with a Vega‑C launcher. A launch window from 8 April to 7 May 2026 has been set, targeting a comprehensive study of Earth’s response...
Webb Maps Uranus's Mysterious Upper Atmosphere
An international team led by Paola Tiranti used JWST’s NIRSpec to produce the first three‑dimensional map of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, extending to 5,000 km above the cloud tops. The observations reveal temperature peaks of about 426 K between 3,000 and 4,000 km and...
When It's Been Your Dream Since Childhood 👩🚀🚀✨
European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot becomes the first member of the Hoppers class to launch to the International Space Station. She named her nine‑month expedition εpsilon, marking a personal milestone and a first for her cohort. On the ISS,...
Moving Space Debris Out of the Way with OMLET
The European Space Agency’s OMLET (Orbit Maintenance via Laser Momentum Transfer) project tackles the growing risk of space debris by proposing a ground‑based high‑power laser system that nudges objects in low Earth orbit onto safer trajectories. The initiative, led by...
River Deltas Are Sinking Faster than the Sea Is Rising
New research using a decade of Copernicus Sentinel‑1 radar data shows that many of the world’s major river deltas are sinking faster than global sea‑level rise. More than half of the 40 deltas examined are subsiding at rates above 3 mm...
Crew-12 Arrives at the International Space Station | Εpsilon Mission
The video captures SpaceX’s Crew‑12 Dragon capsule’s final approach and docking with the International Space Station, broadcast from Houston’s “big loop” mission control. Controllers announce soft‑capture completion, followed by a seamless hard‑dock, confirming the commercial crew vehicle’s reliable performance. The footage...
Launch of Crew-12 with Sophie Adenot | Εpsilon Mission
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the Crew‑12 mission, carrying astronaut Sophie Adenot, from Launch Complex 40 at 7 million newtons of thrust, marking another milestone for the commercial crew program. The vehicle performed a controlled pitch‑over maneuver before reaching Max Q, the point of peak...
ESA Will Engage Global Leaders at the Munich Security Conference 2026
The European Space Agency will attend the 62nd Munich Security Conference (MSC) from 13‑15 February 2026, with Director General Josef Aschbacher joining heads of state, industry CEOs and security experts. ESA aims to showcase how space systems underpin Europe’s competitiveness,...
ESA Awards Contracts for Ramses Mission to Apophis
The European Space Agency has signed an €81.2 million contract with OHB Italia to build the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses), slated for launch in 2028. The spacecraft will rendezvous with near‑Earth asteroid Apophis ahead of its close Earth...
Intense Rainfall Brings Floods Across Iberian Peninsula
Intense winter storms Kristin, Leonardo and Marta drenched the Iberian Peninsula in early February 2026, delivering over 500 mm of rain in 24 hours in parts of Spain and more than 250 mm across the region in a week. The deluge triggered severe...
Ariane 6: More Boosters, More Power
The video announces the inaugural flight of Ariane 6’s most powerful configuration, featuring four strap‑on boosters. This modular launch vehicle is designed to scale its thrust, employing two boosters for lighter payloads and four when maximum performance is required. In its four‑booster...
Earth From Space: Olympic View
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite has released a high‑resolution view of northern Italy as the 2026 Winter Olympics open. The image spotlights the main competition venues, from alpine slopes to the Olympic village, illustrating the mission’s precise Earth‑observation capabilities. ESA used...
Sophie Adenot Ready for First Space Mission
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot is set to launch on the εpsilon mission, her first flight to the International Space Station. She will travel alongside NASA and Roscosmos colleagues as part of a multinational crew. On the ISS, Adenot will conduct a...
Explore Mars’s Flaugergues Crater
The European Space Agency released a new Mars Express video that flies around Flaugergues Crater in the planet’s southern highlands. The footage is accompanied by a detailed map showing the spacecraft’s camera path and high‑resolution stills of the crater’s interior....
ESA's Sustainability Ambition
The European Space Agency (ESA) is foregrounding sustainability across its portfolio, from clean‑space initiatives and zero‑debris targets to eco‑design of missions. Recent milestones include a metal 3D printer’s first product on the International Space Station and the upcoming EarthCARE satellite...
Week in Images: 26-30 January 2026
ESA’s weekly image roundup for 26‑30 January 2026 highlights a mix of human spaceflight, launch preparation, and Earth observation. The gallery features Roscosmos, NASA and ESA astronauts, the Ariane 6 VA267 booster on the pad, and Sentinel‑2 coastal imagery over China. Additional visuals...
Laurent Jaffart Appointed Director of Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity
The European Space Agency Council approved Laurent Jaffart’s reassignment to the newly created Director of Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity (D/RNC) role, effective 1 February 2026. The position reinforces ESA’s focus on resilience, navigation and connectivity to meet the security and defence priorities of...
Earth From Space: Rudong Coast, China
The European Space Agency released a new Sentinel‑2 image of Rudong County’s coastline on China’s eastern seaboard. The high‑resolution optical data showcases the region’s shoreline, wetlands and nearby maritime traffic. ESA highlighted the image as part of its open‑access Copernicus...
ESA at the European Space Conference - Day 2
ESA wrapped up Day 2 of the 18th European Space Conference in Brussels with Director General Josef Aschbacher delivering a second keynote on space resilience and security. The agency’s directors participated in media interviews, student meetings, and panels covering Earth observation,...
Why Space Is Now a Strategic Priority for Europe
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that 2026 will be a watershed year for the continent’s space agenda, moving from the 2025 delivery phase into full‑scale implementation. The plan calls for launching 65 missions—roughly half again as many as in...
1400 Quirky Objects Found in Hubble's Archive
Astronomers at ESA deployed an AI‑driven neural network called AnomalyMatch to comb through roughly 100 million Hubble Legacy Archive cutouts in just 2.5 days. The system flagged about 1,400 anomalous objects, of which more than 800 have never been recorded in the...
ESA’s Biomass Goes Live with Data Now Open to All
The European Space Agency’s Biomass satellite has completed commissioning and entered scientific operations, making its P‑band synthetic aperture radar data freely available. The mission, launched in April 2025, can penetrate dense canopies to quantify woody biomass, delivering the first global, high‑resolution...
Arctic Weather Satellite Paves Way for Constellation
The European Space Agency’s Arctic Weather Satellite, launched in August 2024, proved that a small, low‑cost prototype can deliver operational weather data. Its cross‑track microwave radiometer supplied high‑quality humidity and temperature measurements that ECMWF now assimilates into forecasts. The mission cleared...
ESA at the European Space Conference 2026
The 18th European Space Conference convenes in Brussels on 27‑28 January 2026, spotlighting European autonomy, resilience, competitiveness, security and defence. ESA’s participation follows the Ministerial Council’s approval of a historic €22.3 billion budget, reinforcing its mandate in security‑related activities. Sessions will highlight strengthened...
Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing Rocket Parts
Artificial intelligence is being integrated into ESA‑backed manufacturing projects to modernize rocket component production. MT Aerospace is applying machine‑learning models to shot‑peen forming, friction‑stir welding, and automated carbon‑fibre placement, achieving tighter tolerances and faster setup. Predictive AI now forecasts metal...
Magnetic Avalanches Power Solar Flares, Finds Solar Orbiter
ESA’s Solar Orbiter observed a large solar flare on 30 September 2024 with unprecedented detail, revealing that the eruption is driven by a cascade of small magnetic reconnection events—a magnetic avalanche. High‑resolution EUV imagery captured the precursor filament and rapid formation of twisted...
Legs Made for a Mars Landing
European engineers have completed a series of full‑scale drop tests on the four‑legged ExoMars descent module at ALTEC’s Turin facility. The lightweight, shock‑absorbing legs and their touchdown sensors were evaluated on hard, soft and angled surfaces to ensure stability and...
Rocket Roll
NASA rolled the Artemis II Orion spacecraft to its launch pad, marking a critical milestone for the agency’s first crewed deep‑space mission since Apollo. The rollout follows extensive integration of the Space Launch System core stage and the European Service Module....
What’s Next for the European Space Agency in 2026
The European Space Agency outlined an ambitious 2026 roadmap, highlighting a slate of flagship missions ranging from crewed flights to deep‑space science. Astronaut Sophie Edinault will launch on the Epsilon mission to the International Space Station, while ESA’s European Service Module...
Revolutionising Astronaut Fitness for Deep Space Missions
The European Space Agency unveiled the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D), a compact, multi‑mode workout system designed for long‑duration microgravity missions. E4D combines resistive training, cycling, rowing and rope pulling, delivering up to 270 kg of load and more than...
Earth From Space: The Fate of a Giant
The A23a iceberg, once the planet's largest floating ice mass, is now showing clear signs of imminent breakup, captured in a cloud‑free Sentinel‑2 image over the South Atlantic. The satellite data reveal fissures and meltwater channels that suggest rapid disintegration....
ESA Preview 2026
The video outlines ESA’s 2026 roadmap, highlighting crewed flight, navigation upgrades, deep‑space missions, and Earth observation. Key programs include Sophia Adeno’s Epsilon ISS mission, second‑gen Galileo testing, Celeste LEO navigation, Artemis 2 lunar flyby powered by ESA’s service module, SMILE solar‑wind study,...
ESA and Playmobil Launch Mars Mission Collection
The European Space Agency and Playmobil have unveiled the ESA Space Range, a four‑piece Mars‑mission toy collection released on 9 January across Europe, the United States and Mexico. Each set – the Mars Research Rocket, Exploration Rover, Space Glider and Astronaut...
What Happens when Two Rare Wolf–Rayet Stars Dance Through Space? ✨
The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a remarkable stellar system in our own Milky Way, not a distant galaxy as first impressions suggested. The object, dubbed a PEP, consists of three massive stars—two Wolf‑Rayet giants and a supergiant—entwined in...
Sentinel-1's Decade of Essential Data over Shifting Ice Sheets
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission has completed a ten-year record of high-resolution ice-velocity measurements across Greenland and Antarctica, published in Remote Sensing of Environment. Advanced SAR processing delivers maps with 200‑250 m spatial detail and temporal coverage from days to a decade,...
Cloud-9: A New Celestial Object Found by Hubble
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have identified a new class of object, a star‑less, gas‑rich dark‑matter cloud dubbed “Cloud‑9.” The object, classified as a Reionization‑Limited H I Cloud (RELHIC), spans about 4,900 light‑years and contains roughly one million solar...
