European Space Agency
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200
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Week in images: 11-15 August 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
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Video: 00:04:21 Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission – has launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from the European spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 13 August at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time). MetOp-SG-A1 is the first in a series of three successive pairs of satellites. The mission as a whole not only ensures the continued delivery of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years, but also offers enhanced accuracy and resolution compared to the original MetOp mission – along with new measurement ca…
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Image: The development of ESA’s Earth Explorer FLEX mission has recently passed a significant milestone: the mission’s all-important instrument has been joined to its satellite platform. View the full article
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Combining 25 years of space-based data with ocean sampling, scientists have uncovered a change in the microscopic organisms that underpin the Southern Ocean’s food chain and carbon storage. View the full article
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The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d intrigues astronomers looking for possibly habitable worlds beyond our solar system because it is similar in size to Earth, rocky, and resides in an area around its star where liquid water on its surface is theoretically possible. But according to a new study using data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, it does not have an Earth-like atmosphere. View the full article
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Video: 00:01:36 Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission – has launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 13 August at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time). MetOp-SG-A1 is the first in a series of three successive pairs of satellites. The mission as a whole not only ensures the continued delivery of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years, but also offers enhanced accuracy and resolution compared to the original MetOp mission – along with new measurement capabi…
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Video: 00:01:20 Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission – has launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 13 August at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time). MetOp-SG-A1 is the first in a series of three successive pairs of satellites. The mission as a whole not only ensures the continued delivery of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years, but also offers enhanced accuracy and resolution compared to the original MetOp mission – along with new measurement capabi…
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Ushering in a new era of weather and climate monitoring from polar orbit, the first in a new series of satellites, MetOp Second Generation, has been lofted into orbit aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. As part of this new satellite’s sophisticated instrument package is the new Copernicus Sentinel-5 instrument, which is designed to deliver critical data on air pollutants, ozone and climate-related gases. View the full article
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Earth orbit is becoming increasingly crowded. With over 11 000 active satellites and many thousands more expected in the coming years as well as over 1.2 million pieces of space debris greater than 1 cm, the risk of in-orbit collisions has turned into a daily operational concern. ESA is investing in automation technologies that can help satellite operators respond more effectively to collision risks. View the full article
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Video: 00:01:45 Experience the preparation of the MetOp-SG-A1 satellite, hosting Copernicus Sentinel-5, scheduled for liftoff on an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 13 August 2025 at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time). This timelapse video captures key stages from the encapsulation within the Ariane 6 fairing to the installation in the launch tower. MetOp-SG-A1 is the first in a series of three successive pairs of satellites. The mission as a whole not only ensures the continued delivery of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years, but also offers enhanced acc…
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Week in images: 04-08 August 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
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Video: 00:05:33 Last July, a team of robots explored a simulated martian landscape in Germany, guided by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. This was the final session of the Surface Avatar experiment, a joint initiative between ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to investigate how astronauts can remotely control robotic teams. This latest session took place at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen and introduced new levels of autonomy, decision-making and realism, bringing Europe one step closer to seamless human-robot collaboration in space exploration. View the full article
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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system. View the full article
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Image: A team of astronomers has taken the sharpest-ever picture of the unexpected interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, using the crisp vision of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. ESA's Planetary Defence Office responded promptly to the discovery of the comet, and has been tracking it since the beginning of July. Now, Hubble's observations from space are allowing astronomers to more accurately estimate the size of the comet’s solid icy nucleus. The upper limit on the diameter of the nucleus is 5.6 km, but it could be as small as 320 m across, researchers report. Though the Hubble images put tighter constraints on the nucleus size compared to previous ground-based estimates,…
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Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts Copernicus Sentinel-5 as part of its instrument package – is set for liftoff on an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 13 August 2025 at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time). Watch live on ESA Web TV One. View the full article
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ESA’s Hera mission has captured images of asteroids (1126) Otero and (18805) Kellyday. Though distant and faint, the early observations serve as both a successful instrument test and a demonstration of agile spacecraft operations that could prove useful for planetary defence. Hera is currently travelling through space on its way to a binary asteroid system. In 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft impacted the asteroid Dimorphos, changing its orbit around the larger asteroid Didymos. Now, Hera is returning to the system to help turn asteroid deflection into a reliable technique for planetary defence. View the full article
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In its latest postcard from Mars, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express returns to Acheron Fossae: a dramatic network of chasms carved into the surface of the Red Planet. View the full article
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As preparations to launch Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1 satellite continue on track, the team at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, has bid a heartfelt farewell to this precious satellite as it was sealed from view within the Ariane 6 rocket’s fairing. This all-new weather satellite, which hosts the first Copernicus Sentinel-5 instrument, is set to take to the skies on 13 August at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time). View the full article
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Image: This summer, a team of robots explored a simulated martian landscape in Germany, remotely guided by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. This marked the fourth and final session of the Surface Avatar experiment, a collaboration between ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to develop how astronauts can control robotic teams to perform complex tasks on the Moon and Mars. The session introduced new levels of autonomy and complexity. NASA astronaut Jonny Kim operated two robots – ESA’s four-legged Spot and DLR’s humanoid Rollin’ Justin – to retrieve scattered sample containers and deliver them to a lander. Spot navigated the terrain autonomously…
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Week in images: 28 July - 1 August 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
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Data from ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission can be used to estimate how much carbon is stored in forests – and a study has improved our understanding of how reliable this proxy is and how long-term datasets from SMOS can help us to monitor this valuable resource. View the full article
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Image: Webb takes a fresh look at a classic deep field View the full article
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Image: A supernova-rich spiral View the full article
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