European Space Agency

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Bucharest – the capital and largest city of Romania. View the full article

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Bucharest – the capital and largest city of Romania. View the full article

Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, has recently been on explosive form, with 17 eruptions in less than three months. Instruments onboard three different satellites orbiting Earth have acquired imagery of the eruptions – revealing the intensity of the lava-fountaining eruptive episodes, known as paroxysms. View the full article

Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, has recently been on explosive form, with 17 eruptions in less than three months. Instruments onboard three different satellites orbiting Earth have acquired imagery of the eruptions – revealing the intensity of the lava-fountaining eruptive episodes, known as paroxysms. View the full article

Image: Ariane 6 pre-flight 'plumbing' tests View the full article

Flight passengers will be able to connect securely to their families and colleagues on Earth via sophisticated laser systems. View the full article

Video: 01:00:59 ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher spoke to journalists on 7 April 2021 to introduce ESA Agenda 2025, setting out ESA's strategic priorities and goals. View the full article

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher has worked with our Member States to define new priorities and goals for ESA for the coming years. View the full article

Image: How do we tackle the debris problem, to secure the sustainability of space long term? View the full article

Ariane 6 early combined tests at Latesys in Fos-sur-Mer, in France, have simulated the moment of liftoff when the umbilicals separate from the launch vehicle. View the full article

Today is 406 Day – the annual campaigning day to spread awareness of the importance of emergency beacons, and the satellites that pick up their signals, including Europe’s Galileo constellation. As well as letting people across the world find their way, Galileo also serves to detect SOS messages and relay them to authorities, contributing to saving many lives. View the full article

Week in images: 29 March - 02 April 2021 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: Getting CubeSats moving View the full article

With Easter right around the corner, we take a look at four egg-shaped buildings visible from space as captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. View the full article

With Easter right around the corner, we take a look at four egg-shaped buildings visible from space as captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. View the full article

ESA seeks to open the way to a new era of in-space activities such as refuelling, refurbishment, assembly, manufacturing, and recycling. The Agency is now soliciting ideas for In-Orbit Servicing activities from European industry and academia. View the full article

The quarterly ESA Impact is out now! View the full article

Video: 00:01:46 On 31 March 2021, the European Space Agency is opening the application process for its first astronaut selection in over a decade. If you meet the minimum requirements and want to join Europe’s journey into space, this is your chance to apply. Website esa.int/YourWayToSpace provides everything you need to know to prepare your application. All applications must be submitted to ESA’s careers website by 28 May 2021. View the full article

Applications are open for ESA’s first astronaut selection in over a decade, and all qualified candidates are encouraged to put themselves forward. View the full article

The General Observer scientific observations for the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of operation have been selected. Proposals from ESA member states comprise 33% of the total number of selected proposals and correspond to 30% of the available telescope time on Webb. View the full article

Image: ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has started training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA. Set to launch for her second mission in spring 2022, Samantha is already getting reacquainted with International Space Station systems in a series of refresher courses. Samantha was last on the International Space Station in 2014 for her Futura mission. She spent 200 days in space, conducting European and international scientific experiments and Space Station operations. In the coming months, her schedule will intensify as she trains for the specific experiments and tasks she will perform in space during her second mission. As a collaborative, international effort between the United States, Europe, Canada, Russia and Japan, Space Station training takes place across the globe. Samantha will be training between Johnson Space Center in the USA, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia and the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Samantha and her fellow Class of 2009 astronauts will soon welcome new colleagues. For the first time in over a decade, the European Space Agency is seeking new astronauts and applications are open from 31 March to 28 May 2021. A six-stage selection process will start thereafter. This is expected to be completed in October 2022. Ready to make #YourWayToSpace? Check out the dedicated website with all the information relating to ESA’s 2021–22 astronaut selection. Most importantly, get ready to apply. Perhaps you will find yourself where Samantha is today. View the full article

The ESAIL microsatellite for making the seas safer has picked up more than two million messages from 70 000 ships in a single day. View the full article

Following the selection of the first Scout satellite mission last December, ESA has also given the greenlight to start negotiations with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in the UK to lead the development of the second Scout mission – HydroGNSS. View the full article

Following the selection of the first Scout satellite mission last December, ESA has also given the greenlight to start negotiations with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in the UK to lead the development of the second Scout mission – HydroGNSS. View the full article

The longest corridor in ESA’s largest establishment was turned into a test site for one of the Agency’s most ambitious future missions, Proba-3. The two satellites making up this mission will line up so that one casts a shadow onto the other, revealing inner regions of the Sun’s ghostly atmosphere. But such precision formation flying will only be possible through a vision-based sensor system allowing one satellite to lock onto the other. View the full article