European Space Agency

Image: Inflatable Moon base View the full article

This month NASA’s DART spacecraft will collide with the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids in deep space, attempting to shift its orbit in what will be humankind’s first test of the ‘kinetic impactor’ planetary defence technique. Meanwhile, down on the ground, ESA’s follow-on mission to Didymos has reached its own crucial milestone. View the full article

Image: Captured from space by Copernicus Sentinel-1 on 30 August 2022, this image shows the extent of flooding that is currently devastating Pakistan. Heavy monsoon rainfall has led to more than a third of the country now being underwater. View the full article

Teams are moving forward to the Moon with a second launch attempt of the Artemis I mission on Saturday, 3 September. The two-hour launch window starts at 20:17 CEST (19:17 BST). View the full article

Mars Express takes us over the Holden Basin – part of a region that is a high-ranking target in the search for signs of past life on the Red Planet. This image was taken on 24 April 2022 by the spacecraft’s High Resolution Stereo Camera. View the full article

New images of the spectacular Phantom Galaxy, M74, showcase the power of space observatories working together in multiple wavelengths. In this case, data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope compliment each other to provide a comprehensive view of the galaxy. View the full article

Save the date: this year’s 11th annual ESA Open Day at ESTEC in the Netherlands is confirmed to take place on Sunday 2 October. One of a string of ‘ESA Days’ across Member States, this is the day when the gates of the Agency’s technical heart will be thrown open to the general public, to see space hardware and testing facilities and meet space scientists, engineers and ESA astronauts. View the full article

Week in images: 22-26 August 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: The Orion spacecraft with integrated European Service Module sit atop the Space Launch System, imaged at sunrise at historic Launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The Flight Readiness Review has deemed the trio GO for launch, marking the dawn of a new era in space exploration. The first in a series of missions that will return humans to the Moon, including taking the first European, Artemis I is scheduled for launch no earlier than Monday 29 August, at 14:33 CEST. This mission will put NASA’s Orion spacecraft and ESA’s European Service Module to the test during a journey beyond the Moon and back. No crew will be on board Orion this time, and the spacecraft will be controlled by teams on Earth. The crew module, however, won’t be empty. Two mannequins, named Helga and Zohar, will occupy the passenger seats. Their female-shaped plastic bodies are filled with over 5600 sensors each to measure the radiation load during their trip around the Moon. The specially trained woolly astronaut, Shaun the Sheep, has also been assigned a seat. The spacecraft will enter lunar orbit using the Moon’s gravity to gain speed and propel itself almost half a million km from Earth – farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever travelled. The second Artemis mission will see four astronauts travel around the Moon on a flyby voyage around our natural satellite. Mission duration depends on the launch date and even time. It will last between 20 to 40 days, depending on how many orbits of the Moon mission designers decide to make. This flexibility in mission length is necessary to allow the mission to end as intended with a splashdown during daylight hours in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, USA. Two more dates are available if a launch on 29 August is not possible. The Artemis Moon mission can also be launched on 2 September and 5 September. Check all the possible launch options on ESA’s Orion blog. Orion is the only spacecraft capable of human spaceflight outside Earth orbit and high-speed reentry from the vicinity of the Moon. More than just a crew module, Orion includes the European Service Module (ESM), the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion. ESM provides for all astronauts’ basic needs, such as water, oxygen, nitrogen, temperature control, power and propulsion. Much like a train engine pulls passenger carriages and supplies power, the European Service Module will take the Orion capsule to its destination and back. Watch launch coverage on ESA Web TV starting at 12:30 CEST here. Follow @esaspaceflight for updates and live Twitter coverage. View the full article

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Image: ESA astronaut rad-detectors on Artemis View the full article

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has found definitive evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away. The result provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet, and is indicative of Webb’s ability to also detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets. View the full article

The countdown has started for the first human-rated launch to the Moon in over half a century. ESA’s European Service Module will be powering the Orion spacecraft to our natural satellite and back. View the full article

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Image: A record-breaking drought has caused parts of the Yangtze River to dry up completely – affecting hydropower, shipping routes and limiting drinking water supplies. Images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission show a comparison of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, near Chongqing, over the last three years. View the full article

An agreement signed yesterday looks to extend the use of ESA space technology along European roads. The Agency’s Navigation Directorate has finalised a Memorandum of Intent with ERTICO, the organisation for the European Road Transport Telematics Implementation Coordination, a public-private partnership focused on the development, promotion and connection of intelligent road systems and services. View the full article

Video: 00:57:00 The Artemis I mission is almost ready for launch: it will send an uncrewed spacecraft beyond the Moon and back. Watch the replay of this virtual Q&A to learn more about Europe's contribution to the mission: ESA is overseeing the development of the European Service Module, that provides air, electricity and propulsion to the spacecraft. Participants to this media briefing include Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General ; David Parker, ESA Director for Human and Robotic Exploration ; Jean-Marc Nasr, Airbus EVP Space Systems and Marc Steckling, Airbus Head of Space Exploration View the full article

Image: Jupiter showcases aurorae, hazes (NIRCam widefield view) View the full article

A new map of Mars is changing the way we think about the planet’s watery past, and showing where we should land in the future. View the full article

Week in images: 15-19 August 2022 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: The 12-member crew of Concordia research station woke up to a most welcome sight in early August: sunrise, after four months of Antarctic darkness. The return of the sun is a major milestone for the isolated and confined crew; they are three-quarters of the way through their Antarctic residency and will soon prepare to welcome the summer influx of researchers at the base. ESA-sponsored medical doctor Hannes Hagson snapped this picture from the Station’s front door in early on 5 August. “Time here has the strange quality of both passing really quickly and very slowly at the same time,” he shared, “and in just two days we expect the return of the sun to grace us here at 75 degrees south! The returning daylight certainly has us all cheered up and starting to sense the beginning of the final part of this adventure.” The winter months in Antarctica are tough, with temperatures dropping below −80C under a pitch black sky. To combat winter blues, the crew keep busy, celebrating mid-winter (and the half-way point in their Antarctic stay) in June with their own traditions and taking part in the Antarctic Winter Games in July. Stations with a winter crew across Antarctica participate in a series of physical challenges and friendly competition. With August comes not only sunlight, but production work for the Antarctic Film Festival, with each base submitting an original piece. Check out last year’s winning entry from Concordia in the Open category. Of course, it’s not all fun and games. Hannes has been busy with biomedical research, as he continues to gather data from crew urine, stool and blood samples, as well as cognitive and psychological measures through questionnaires to study the effects of isolated, confined and extreme environments on the human body. In October the crew will begin to prepare the base for the summer campaign. Rooms and tents must be prepared for the 40 or so incoming researchers. Follow Hannes along on this adventure on the Concordia blog. View the full article

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ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark is set to return to the International Space Station for his first long-duration Station mission. With only one year left before his launch in mid-2023, a name for the mission has been chosen: Huginn. View the full article

Image: A special Moon snap View the full article

See all 22 artworks submitted for the Art for Artemis project on display at the Waterfront in Bremen, Germany. The formal opening of the exhibition is on 22 August at 17:00 CEST with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter and will be open to the public throughout the Artemis I mission to the Moon and back. View the full article