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By European Space Agency
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 it ratified the ESA Convention in December 1986 and while always strongly committed to Earth observation and space applications, Austria has recently diversified its space interests, becoming more involved in launchers, navigation and human and robotic exploration. Austrian Carmen Possnig was selected as a member of ESA’s astronaut reserve in 2022 and will commence her second phase of training in the autumn. Carmen joined the visit and enthusiastically answered questions from the assembled Austrian media.
As part of Austria's innovation community, the ESA PhiLab opened last year and has a current call for proposals open until 8 October. Just last month, Austria hosted the Living Planet Symposium, which brought together 6500 members of the Earth observation community to present scientific results and plan future activities. It was supported by a citywide 'Space in the City' festival in Vienna, organised by the Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI) and Urban Innovation Vienna GmbH (UIV) and demonstrating the everyday connections between citizens and space.
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By European Space Agency
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, giving an earlier and clearer picture of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) heading toward Earth.
Radiation, plasma and particles flung towards Earth by the Sun can pose a very real risk to critical infrastructure our society relies on. This includes satellites for navigation, communications and banking services as well as power grids and radio communication on the ground.
A report by Lloyd’s of London estimates that a severe space weather event, caused by such an outburst of solar activity, could cost the global economy 2.4 trillion dollars over five years.
ESA’s response to this growing threat is Vigil, a cornerstone mission of the Agency’s Space Safety Programme, planned for launch in 2031. Vigil’s data will give us drastically improved early warnings and forecasts, which in turn help protect satellites, astronauts and critical infrastructure on the ground that we all depend on.
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By NASA
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center will host astronauts for a media opportunity as the center celebrates its 65th anniversary during a free, community event on Saturday, July 19, from noon to 5 p.m. CDT at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama.
Marshall, along with its partners and collaborators, will fill the amphitheater with space exhibits, music, food vendors, and hands-on activities for all ages. The summer celebration will mark 65 years of innovation and exploration, not only for Marshall, but for Huntsville and other North Alabama communities.
The event will kick off with a program at 12:30 p.m. led by Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, and will include a presentation from some of the Expedition 72 crew members who recently returned from their mission after dedicating more than 1,000 combined hours to scientific research and technology demonstrations aboard the International Space Station. The crew will share their experiences in space with the community.
The official portrait of the International Space Station’s Expedition 72 crew. At the top (from left) are Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin, NASA astronaut and space station Commander Suni Williams, and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore. In the middle row are Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Don Pettit. In the bottom row are Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Nick Hague. NASA/Bill Stafford and Robert Markowitz Media are invited to attend the event and participate in a news conference with the astronauts after the presentation but must confirm their attendance by 4:30 p.m., Thursday, July 17, to Lance D. Davis – lance.d.davis@nasa.gov – in Marshall’s Office of Communications.
Media should arrive at the front entrance of The Orion Amphitheater by 11:45 a.m., Saturday, July 19, to be escorted by the Office of Communications.
Founded July 1, 1960, in Huntsville, Marshall has shaped or supported nearly every facet of the nation’s ongoing mission of space exploration and discovery, solving the most complex, technical flight challenges, and contributing to science to improve life and protect resources around the world.
Learn more about Marshall’s 65th anniversary celebration at:
https://www.nasa.gov/marshall65/
Lance D. Davis
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-640-9065
lance.d.davis@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jul 16, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
Marshall Space Flight Center View the full article
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By European Space Agency
The Council of the European Space Agency has received the Anniversary Statement as signed by Member States marking 50 years of the agency.
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By NASA
The TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission will help scientists understand an explosive process called magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. Credit: University of Iowa/Andy Kale NASA will hold a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 17, to share information about the agency’s upcoming Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS, mission, which is targeted to launch no earlier than late July.
The TRACERS mission is a pair of twin satellites that will study how Earth’s magnetic shield — the magnetosphere — protects our planet from the supersonic stream of material from the Sun called solar wind. As they fly pole to pole in a Sun-synchronous orbit, the two TRACERS spacecraft will measure how magnetic explosions send these solar wind particles zooming down into Earth’s atmosphere — and how these explosions shape the space weather that impacts our satellites, technology, and astronauts.
Also launching on this flight will be three additional NASA-funded payloads. The Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) SmallSat, led by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is designed to demonstrate an innovative, configurable way to put remote-sensing instruments into orbit faster and more affordably. The Polylingual Experimental Terminal technology demonstration, managed by the agency’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program, will showcase new technology that empowers missions to roam between communications networks in space, like cell phones roam between providers on Earth. Finally, the Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss (REAL) CubeSat, led by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, will use space as a laboratory to understand how high-energy particles within the bands of radiation that surround Earth are naturally scattered into the atmosphere, aiding the development of methods for removing these damaging particles to better protect satellites and the critical ground systems they support.
Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website at:
nasa.gov/live
Participants include:
Joe Westlake, division director, Heliophysics, NASA Headquarters Kory Priestley, principal investigator, Athena EPIC, NASA Langley Greg Heckler, deputy program manager for capability development, SCaN, NASA Headquarters David Miles, principal investigator for TRACERS, University of Iowa Robyn Millan, REAL principal investigator, Dartmouth College To participate in the media teleconference, media must RSVP no later than 10 a.m. on July 17 to Sarah Frazier at: sarah.frazier@nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.
The TRACERS mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
This mission is led by David Miles at the University of Iowa with support from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program Office at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the mission for the agency’s HeliophysicsDivision at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of California, Berkeley, all lead instruments on TRACERS that will study changes in the Earth’s magnetic field and electric field. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare contract.
To learn more about TRACERS, please visit:
nasa.gov/tracers
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Abbey Interrante / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
301-201-0124 / 202-358-1600
abbey.a.interrante@nasa.gov / karen.c.fox@nasa.gov
Sarah Frazier
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
202-853-7191
sarah.frazier@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jul 10, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Earth Heliophysics Science Mission Directorate Solar Wind TRACERS View the full article
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