European Space Agency

Video: 00:24:33 Watch the replay of the ESA-CNES press conference held at the Paris Air Show 2025 (Le Bourget) on 16 June 2025, with Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA, and Lionel Suchet, Executive Vice President of CNES. Download the transcript. View the full article

Today, the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission unveils its first images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere – the solar corona. The mission’s two satellites, able to fly as a single spacecraft thanks to a suite of onboard positioning technologies, have succeeded in creating their first ‘artificial total solar eclipse’ in orbit. The resulting coronal images demonstrate the potential of formation flying technologies, while delivering invaluable scientific data that will improve our understanding of the Sun and its enigmatic atmosphere. View the full article

Week in images: 09-13 June 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

The European Space Agency has begun the 55th International Paris Air Show by unveiling the first images from the Proba-3 spacecraft. View the full article

ESA at Le Bourget 2025 View the full article

Image: Copernicus Sentinel-1 captured this image over part of eastern Borneo, a tropical island in Southeast Asia. View the full article

Video: 01:15:00 Watch the replay of the media information session where ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Council Chair Renato Krpoun (CH) brief journalists on the key decisions made during the ESA Council meeting held at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 11–12 June 2025. View the full article

Join the European Space Agency at the new Paris Space Hub during this year’s International Paris Air Show. View the full article

Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter’s unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather. View the full article

ESA Impact: Pick of our spring space snaps View the full article

Video: 00:02:00 ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski is heading to the International Space Station on his first mission as part of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). He is the second ESA project astronaut from a new generation of Europeans to fly on a commercial human spaceflight mission with Axiom Space. Sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT), and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), the mission—called Ignis—features an ambitious technological and scientific programme. It includes several experiments proposed by the Polish space industry and developed in cooperation with ESA, along with additional ESA-led experiments. Follow Sławosz's journey on the Ignis mission website and discover more about the next mission patch to be hung on the walls of the Columbus Control Centre. View the full article

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Week in images: 02-06 June 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: A thick plume of sand and dust from the Sahara Desert is seen in these satellite images blowing from the west coast of Africa across the Atlantic Ocean. View the full article

On 31 May, a live performance of The Blue Danube – often referred to as the ‘anthem of space’ – was transmitted by the European Space Agency (ESA) into the vastness of space. The event marked a double celebration: ESA’s 50th anniversary and the 200th birthday of the King of Waltz Johann Strauss II. View the full article

The Meteosat Third Generation Sounder satellite (MTG-S) will generate a completely new type of data product, especially suited to nowcasting severe weather events. Here are five ways in which Europe’s latest weather satellite will change how we forecast weather. View the full article

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) newest planetary defender has opened its ‘eye’ to the cosmos for the first time. The Flyeye telescope’s ‘first light’ marks the beginning of a new chapter in how we scan the skies for new near-Earth asteroids and comets. View the full article

After an extraordinary six-week voyage from northern Norway, the iconic Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl has docked in Nice, France, concluding ESA’s 2025 Advanced Ocean Training course. Braving everything from wild storms to calm near-freezing seas, students aboard mastered techniques for collecting ocean measurements and harnessed satellite data to unlock insights into our blue planet. Led by experts, this real-world expedition offered more than education – it sparked curiosity and a deeper commitment to understanding and protecting our oceans. View the full article

On 31 May 2025, the European Space Agency (ESA) made history by transmitting a live performance of The Blue Danube Waltz into space from its Cebreros deep space antenna in Spain. This symbolic gesture elevated Johann Strauss II’s famous waltz, often considered the unofficial ‘anthem of space’, to its rightful place among the stars. View the full article

From its vantage point outside Earth’s atmosphere, more than 36 000 km above Earth’s surface, the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission will detect major air pollutants over Europe in unprecedented detail. It will observe how they vary on an hourly basis – a real breakthrough for air quality forecasting. View the full article

Video: 00:02:27 An animation showing ESA’s Smile mission watching on as the Sun’s solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic field. View the full article

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission has captured a dramatic image of Mount Etna erupting on 2 June 2025 when a massive plume of ash, gas and rock suddenly burst from Europe's largest active volcano. View the full article

Japanese lunar exploration company ispace will attempt to land its RESILIENCE spacecraft on the Moon no earlier than 5 June (CEST) 2025. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) global network of ground stations is facilitating communication between the spacecraft and ispace mission control. Click here to watch the ispace landing livestream in English. View the full article

Over a decade’s worth of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data was used to re-examine the long-held prediction that the Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 4.5 billion years. The astronomers found that, based on the latest observational data from Hubble and Gaia, there is only a 50-50 chance of the two galaxies colliding within the next 10 billion years. View the full article

Week in images: 26-30 May 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article