European Space Agency

The James Webb Space Telescope is confirmed for the target launch date of 24 December, at 12:20 GMT / 13:20 CET. View the full article

Green and digital transition in Europe will benefit from ESA expertise that supports national plans for investing recovery and resilience funds in space projects. At the 303rd ESA Council meeting in Paris on 15 December 2021, ESA Member States took the decision to further the role of ESA as provider of expertise in support of national space plans, in particular in order to accompany the investment of Italian recovery and resilience funds in space programmes. View the full article

Year in images 2021 Our year through the lens: a selection of our favourite images for 2021 View the full article

Video: 00:45:03 Replay of the 16 December 2021 online press briefing about the James Webb Space Telescope. Speakers: - Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science - Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA Director of Space Transportations - Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s Associate Administrator for science - Antonella Nota, ESA Webb Project Scientist - Gillian Wright, European Principal Investigator for the MIRI instrument Developed and constructed over more than 30 years, Webb is a remarkable feat of engineering and technology – with the largest astronomical mirror ever flown in space, sophisticated new scientific instruments, and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Webb is designed to answer outstanding questions about the Universe and to make breakthrough discoveries in all fields of astronomy. The major contributions of ESA to the mission are: the NIRSpec instrument; the MIRI instrument optical bench assembly; the provision of the launch services; and personnel to support mission operations. In return for these contributions, European scientists will get a minimum share of 15% of the total observing time, like for Hubble. Webb’s partners are ESA, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). View the full article

Ahead of the upcoming Ariane 5 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Kourou – home to Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, an overseas department of France. View the full article

A pretty special gift unwrapping will soon take place – a piercing tool built by ESA will open a Moon soil container from Apollo 17 that has gone untouched for nearly 50 years. The opening will allow the extraction of precious lunar gases which may have been preserved in the sample. View the full article

How did supermassive black holes form? What is dark matter? In an alternative model for how the Universe came to be, as compared to the ‘textbook’ history of the Universe, a team of astronomers propose that both of these cosmic mysteries could be explained by so-called ‘primordial black holes’. View the full article

Image: Lunar robot wars View the full article

In an astonishing feat of endurance, explorers Justin Packshaw and Jamie Facer Childs are a quarter of the way through a 3600-km kitesurf trek that takes them across the desolate heart of Antarctica. They are not pushing their physical and mental limits to the brink, facing howling gales and temperatures of –55°C just for the sake of adventure. They are gathering information to help scientists better understand how the body responds to extremes and taking unique measurements of their ice environment that will help complement ESA’s CryoSat mission to better understand how this giant ice sheet is evolving in response to climate change. View the full article

ESA’s Vega-C launch vehicle will fly in the second quarter of 2022 offering more performance to all orbits and extended mission flexibility at a similar cost to the current Vega. A new contract aims to widen these mission capabilities to capture new opportunities and satisfy emerging market needs to 2027. View the full article

The notion of living in a bubble is usually associated with negative connotations, but all life on Earth is dependent on the safe bubble created by our magnetic field. Understanding how the field is generated, how it protects us and how it sometimes gives way to charged particles from the solar wind is not just a matter of scientific interest, but also a matter of safety. Using information from ESA’s Cluster and Swarm missions along with measurements from the ground, scientists have, for the first time, been able to confirm that curiously named bursty bulk flows are directly connected to abrupt changes in the magnetic field near Earth’s surface, which can cause damage to pipelines and electrical power lines. View the full article

On Saturday 11 December, the James Webb Space Telescope was placed on top of the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch it to space from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. View the full article

For a mission yet to have entered its main science phase, Solar Orbiter has already generated a lot of great science. Today sees the publication of a wealth of results from the mission’s cruise phase. View the full article

The largest parachute set to fly on Mars has completed its first successful high-altitude drop test, a critical milestone for ensuring the ExoMars mission is on track for launch in 2022. Both the first and second stage parachutes have now successfully flown this year. View the full article

ESA Highlights: images and achievements from 2021 ESA Highlights 2021 is available online in this interactive format, which can be read on your desktop computer, laptop, tablet or phone. View the full article

We’re already exploring Mars, with two spacecraft in orbit and an ambitious rover mission planned for launch next year – but now you can join in these martian adventures with your own PLAYMOBIL Mars Expedition! View the full article

ESA Impact 2021 Q4 edition Great images and videos of climate change on view, BepiColombo flies by Mercury, Cheops gets a surprise, and more View the full article

Week in images: 6 - 10 December 2021 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Video: 00:00:57 The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) is designed to answer fundamental questions about the Universe. One of Webb’s key science goals is to study the nearby cosmos: uncovering hidden parts of our Solar System, peering inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming, and revealing the composition of exoplanets in more detail. Exoplanets Thanks to its powerful capabilities at infrared wavelengths, Webb will offer a unique view of the outer planets in our own magnificent Solar System. Looking beyond, Webb will study in detail the atmospheres of a wide diversity of exoplanets. Webb can study exoplanets as they pass in front of their respective host stars (known as transiting). The tiny fraction of light that passes through the atmosphere interacts with atoms and molecules there. That light then carries information about them, which scientists use to infer conditions such as temperature, chemical composition and formation history. Webb will search for atmospheres similar to Earth’s, and for the signatures of key substances such as methane, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide and complex organic molecules, in the exciting hope of finding the building blocks of life. In this way, Webb will complement ESA’s Ariel mission, a space telescope scheduled for launch in 2029 that will study what exoplanets are made of, how they form and how they evolve. The lifecycle of stars Webb will determine how and why clouds of dust and gas collapse into stars, or become gas giant planets or brown dwarfs. Observing in the infrared part of the spectrum, Webb will be capable of peering through the dusty envelopes around newly born stars, and its superb sensitivity will allow astronomers to directly investigate the faint, earliest stages of starbirth, known as ‘protostellar cores’. Throughout their lifetimes, stars transform the Universe’s simple elements into heavier elements and spread them throughout the cosmos through stellar winds and supernova explosions, along with the precious heavy metals that enrich the cosmos to form new generations of stars. Webb will study such supernova explosions, which are explosive deaths of massive stars and are among the most energetic events in the Universe. Webb will also study brown dwarfs: astronomical objects that are more massive than a planet but less massive than a star. Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). View the full article

The city of Fairbanks, the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and its surroundings, are featured in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image. View the full article

Applicants to ESA’s astronaut selection are being thanked for their patience as thousands of acceptance or rejection notifications are distributed to candidates across Europe. View the full article

Image: The James Webb Space Telescope was transferred to the final assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 7 December 2021, to meet its Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Stowed inside a special 23-tonne transport container, Webb was protected and monitored throughout the transfer. Ariane 5 was already moved to the same building on 29 November. Here, adjustable platforms allow engineers to access the launch vehicle and its payload. The next steps are to hoist Webb to the upper platform which has been prepared so that Webb can be integrated on Ariane 5’s upper stage and then encapsulated inside Ariane 5’s specially adapted fairing. Webb is scheduled for launch on 22 December from Europe’s Spaceport. Ground teams have already successfully completed the delicate operation of loading the spacecraft with the propellant it will use to steer itself while in space. Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. As part of an international collaboration agreement, ESA is providing the telescope’s launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace. Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Find out more about Webb in ESA’s launch kit and interactive brochure. View the full article

ESA is calling on industry to come forward with ideas for crew and cargo transportation, operations, payloads, research, living quarters and even astronaut training. All of this could develop into new services in an effort to enlarge the space ecosystem to the commercial sphere. View the full article

Image: Blood disc for astronaut diagnosis View the full article

The Ariane 5 launch vehicle which will launch the James Webb Space Telescope was moved to the final assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 29 November 2021. View the full article