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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Video: 01:16:00 Watch the replay of ESA's start-of-the-year press briefing looking ahead to 2024. Director General Josef Aschbacher presents this year's key milestones from ESA HQ in Paris: in 2024, Europe will regain its autonomous access to space, with the inaugural flight of the heavy-lift launcher Ariane 6 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Hear more about Hera, the planetary defence mission which will be launched at the end of 2024 and EarthCARE, ESA’s Earth observation mission studying the role that clouds and aerosols play in reflecting solar radiation. Updates are also provided on how commercial European space companies will compete to deliver suppl…
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Image: Micro-world within atomic clock View the full article
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Join ESA's start-of-the-year press briefing with Director General Josef Aschbacher on 11 January from 10:00 CET. View the full article
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Image: The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) spacecraft Einstein Probe lifted off on a Chang Zheng (Long March) 2C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China at 15:03 CST / 07:03 GMT / 08:03 CET on 9 January 2024. With the successful launch, Einstein Probe began its mission to survey the sky and hunt for bursts of X-ray light from mysterious objects such as neutron stars and black holes. Einstein Probe is a collaboration led by CAS with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), Germany. “I would like to congratulate our colleagues at CAS on the successful launch of an innovative mission that is set to…
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Visitors to ESA’s cutting-edge visitor centre are being captivated by virtual reality trips to the International Space Station, interactions with a globe showing Earth from space, and displays of astronaut suits, launchers and ESA memorabilia – before getting the chance to buy a souvenir from the ESA space shop. View the full article
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Video: 00:06:06 As 2024 kicks into gear, we invite you to look ahead with ESA and see what awaits us in the coming 12 months. After Ariane 5’s retirement in 2023, Europe’s new and versatile heavy-duty launcher Ariane 6 will continue the Ariane legacy of excellence and reliability. After years of development and construction,Ariane 6 will be ready for its first flight from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou. In 2024, we’ll see a return-to-flight for Vega-C. Vega-C will continue to provide Europe with its own affordable lightweight launcher. Together both projects guarantee Europe’s independent access to space. We also continue to collaborate internationally with …
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Image: So near, or so far? View the full article
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Invisible to our eyes, X-rays emitted by the hot gas that fills much of the Universe can shed light on many cosmic mysteries. The 'first light' observations of this gas by JAXA’s X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) are now ready. They demonstrate that the mission will play a big role in unveiling the evolution of the Universe and the structure of spacetime. View the full article
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An international team of astronomers has assembled and reprocessed observations of the exoplanet WASP-121 b that were collected with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the years 2016, 2018 and 2019. This provided them with a unique dataset that allowed them not only to analyse the atmosphere of WASP-121 b, but also to compare the state of the exoplanet’s atmosphere across several years. The team found clear evidence that the observations of WASP-121 b were varying in time. Using sophisticated modelling techniques, they demonstrated that these temporal variations could be explained by weather patterns in the exoplanet's atmosphere. View the full article
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Through exquisite, millimetre-scale, formation flying, the dual satellites making up ESA’s Proba-3 will accomplish what was previously a space mission impossible: cast a precisely held shadow from one platform to the other, in the process blocking out the fiery Sun to observe its ghostly surrounding atmosphere on a prolonged basis. View the full article
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Image: It’s all relative View the full article
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Video: 00:04:10 Embark on a cosmic journey with ESA as we explore the universe through the lens of ‘One Million’. From the scorching temperatures of the Sun's corona to the cosmic gaze of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope — discover the astronomical wonders that surround us. Join our space community in celebrating a momentous occasion — 1 MILLION subscribers on YouTube! Thank you for your enthusiasm and support. View the full article
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Year in images 2023 Our year through the lens: a selection of our favourite images for 2023 View the full article
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Image: Gift wrapped for Ariane 6 View the full article
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The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) spacecraft Einstein Probe is ready to launch in January 2024. Equipped with a new generation of X-ray instruments with high sensitivity and a very wide view, this mission will survey the sky and hunt for powerful blasts of X-ray light coming from mysterious celestial objects such as neutron stars and black holes. Einstein Probe is a collaboration led by CAS with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), Germany. View the full article
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Last week, members of ESA’s astronaut class of 2022 embarked on their first overseas field trip. They visited NASA’s facilities at the Johnson Space Centre (JSC) in Houston, Texas, USA, to get familiar with the environment where they will spend a significant part of their training once assigned to a mission. View the full article
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Image: Pinhole propulsion for satellites View the full article
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This year has been a whirlwind of captivating Earth observation stories and news, spanning from dramatic volcanic eruptions to powerful earthquakes to witnessing icebergs on the run. Join us as we revisit some of the most memorable stories from 2023. View the full article
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ESA Impact 2023 – Quarter 4 Welcome to this edition of ESA Impact, an interactive publication covering stories and images from the last quarter of 2023. View the full article
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The latest international group to employ ESA’s hypergravity-generating Large Diameter Centrifuge is an all-female team from Bolivia, with access sponsored by the United Nations and ESA. The researchers are investigating whether the high gravity levels experienced during rocket launches might contribute to the anemia afflicting many astronauts in space. View the full article
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Image: Ten years ago, on 19 December 2013, ESA’s billion star-mapping satellite Gaia launched. Since then, Gaia has been scanning the sky and gathering an enormous amount of data on the positions and motions of 1.8 billion stars, enabling numerous discoveries about the history of our galaxy. Gaia’s catalogue is ever-growing containing data on stars and other cosmic objects such as asteroids in our Solar System, exoplanets, binary stars, and other galaxies. The Gaia collaboration, consisting of about 450 people in 25 countries, prepares the data for scientific use. This has resulted in publications of over 10 000 scientific papers and 128 PhD theses. Find out more about…
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Image: Hera’s wings of power View the full article
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The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on weird and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that orbits on its side. What Webb found is a dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, and other atmospheric features – including a seasonal polar cap. The image expands upon a two-colour version released earlier this year, adding additional wavelength coverage for a more detailed look. View the full article
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