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: 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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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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Image: Copernicus Sentinel-2 captured wildfires burning in northern Portugal on Wednesday, 30 July. View the full article
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More than one star contributes to the irregular shape of NGC 6072 – Webb’s newest look at this planetary nebula in the near- and mid-infrared shows what may appear as a very messy scene resembling splattered paint. However, the unusual, asymmetrical scene hints at more complicated mechanisms underway, as the star central to the scene approaches the very final stages of its life and expels shells of material, losing up to 80 percent of its mass. View the full article
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Europe’s forests play a crucial role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but research led by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has found their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide has declined in the past decade. View the full article
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Using data from several Earth-observing satellites, including ESA’s CryoSat and the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions, scientists have discovered that a huge flood beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet surged upwards with such force that it fractured the ice sheet, resulting in a vast quantity of meltwater bursting through the ice surface. View the full article
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Video: 00:07:00 Highlights and liftoff of Vega-C flight VV27 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, at 23:03 local time on 25 July (03:03 BST/04:03 CEST on 26 July). Flight VV27 was operated by Arianespace and launched Airbus’s four CO3D satellites and the French space agency CNES MicroCarb mission. The four small satellites in the CO3D constellation (an abbreviation of the French 'Constellation Optique en 3D') are set to map the globe in three dimensions from low Earth orbit, to serve public and private sector needs. MicroCarb is designed to map sources and sinks of carbon dioxide on a global scale. ESA coordinated and procured the launch of MicroCarb on behal…
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Week in images: 21-25 July 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
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Image: The turquoise waters southeast of the Kuwaiti island of Failaka are captured in this image acquired by the Φsat-2 mission. View the full article
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The journey to launch is picking up pace for Europe’s MetOp Second Generation weather satellite – which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 as part of its instrument package. Specialists at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou have completed the critical and hazardous task of fuelling the satellite, marking a major milestone in its final preparations for liftoff. View the full article
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The next sea-level monitoring satellite, Copernicus Sentinel-6B, has begun its journey from Europe to the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where it is scheduled to launch in November. Carefully packed into a climate-controlled container, the satellite is currently crossing the Atlantic Ocean aboard the cargo ship Industrial Dolphin. View the full article
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Video: 00:03:46 On 15 July 2025, with the splashdown of the Dragon capsule off the coast of California, the Ignis mission ended after a 20-day space journey. ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland, during nearly 230 orbits around Earth, completed about 120 hours of telework on the International Space Station and contributed to more than 20 experiments from his orbital office. Following medical checks on the recovery vessel, Sławosz flew to shore by helicopter and then travelled from the United States to Germany in order to undergo a week of recovery at the European Astronaut Centre. Dozens of people gathered to give him a warm welcome at the…
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With launch slated for August, the first MetOp Second Generation satellite, MetOp-SG-A1, which also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission, is currently undergoing final preparations for liftoff aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. View the full article
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The most complex parachute system to ever deploy on Mars has successfully slowed down an ExoMars mock-up landing platform for a safe touchdown on Earth. View the full article
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Image: On Friday 18 July, His Excellency Christian Stocker, Federal Chancellor of Austria, visited ESA Headquarters in Paris receiving a tour of the site from Director General Josef Aschbacher. It was the Chancellor’s first visit to an ESA establishment following his swearing in earlier this year. Visiting the Astrolabe interpretive centre, Mr Stocker saw how Austria’s participation in ESA contributes to the goals of sustainable development and scientific excellence, and also heard how commercial space has undergone rapid development in Austria. He was accompanied by the Austrian ambassador to France, Barbara Kaudel-Jensen. Austria became ESA’s 12th Member State when i…
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Week in images: 14-18 July 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
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When the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) flew past our Moon in August 2024, its Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) instrument listened to radio wave echoes to reveal the height of the lunar surface. View the full article
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Image: This image from Copernicus Sentinel-1 shows circular agricultural structures near Tabarjal, in the barren desert of northern Saudi Arabia. View the full article
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Video: 00:01:51 Space weather ‘reporter’ Vigil will be the world’s first space weather mission to be permanently positioned at Lagrange point 5, a unique vantage point that allows us to see solar activity days before it reaches Earth. ESA’s Vigil mission will be a dedicated operational space weather mission, sending data 24/7 from deep space. Vigil’s tools as a space weather reporter at its unique location in deep space will drastically improve forecasting abilities. From there, Vigil can see ‘around the corner’ of the Sun and observe activity on the surface of the Sun days before it rotates into view from Earth. It can also watch the Sun-Earth line side-on, givi…
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Video: 00:00:40 View of Earth as seen by ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station's "window to the world". The European Space Agency-built Cupola is the favourite place of many astronauts on the International Space Station. It serves not only as a unique photo spot, but also for observing robotic activities of the Canadian Space Agency's robotic arm Canadarm2, arriving spacecraft and spacewalks. Sławosz was launched to the International Space Station on the Dragon spacecraft as part of Axiom Mission 4 on 25 June 2025. The 20-day mission on board is known as Ignis. During the Ignis mission,…
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Φsat-2, a miniature satellite, has completed its commissioning and has begun delivery of science data, using algorithms to efficiently process and compress Earth observation images, as well as detect wildfires, ships, marine pollution and more. View the full article
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All its parts have been built and put together. It has been wrapped in shiny gold insulating foil. Its launch is getting closer. But the Smile spacecraft had one major phase to pass before it could be certified ready for space – and it involved testing, testing and yet more testing. View the full article
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