Confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization, July 2023 was the hottest month on record, with high-impact weather continuing through August. These records are based on air temperatures, but measurements of the temperature of Earth’s surface taken from space are also essential to tracking the impact of climate change, and to being better prepared for such extremes – especially when it comes to cities where stifling urban heat islands form.
Image: A month after fires ravaged the island of Rhodes in July 2023, more fires have ripped through Greece this week as southern Europe swelters under a late summer heatwave. This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows the ongoing blaze near Alexandroupoli in the Evros region of northeast Greece – close to the Türkiye border.
Hera is complete. ESA’s asteroid mission for planetary defence was built and prepared in two halves, but now, through a painstaking operation, they have been mated together to make a single spacecraft, ready for full-scale testing of its readiness for space.
Image: ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen with his Crew-7 colleagues on arrival at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, 20 August.
ESA’s Mars Express has turned its trusty High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) towards Mars’s most imposing volcano, revealing its dramatic surroundings and turbulent past.
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Crew-7 has arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, in the run-up to the International Space Station launch.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the well-known Ring Nebula with unprecedented detail. Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula. The object is also known as M57 and NGC 6720, and is relatively close to Earth at roughly 2,500 light-years away.
The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is ready to launch on 26 August 2023 to observe the most energetic objects and events in the cosmos. In doing so, it will unveil the evolution of the Universe and the structure of spacetime.
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During Artemis I the European Service Module (ESM) surpassed expectations. Now, as we set our sights on Artemis II, the European Service Module is ready to once again serve as Orion’s primary power and propulsion component and keep the spacecraft at the right temperature and on course. And this time, with real astronauts on board.
Following on from the launch of the first Meteosat Third Generation weather satellite, MTG-I1, last December, the focus is now on getting its partner satellite, MTG-S1, ready for liftoff next year – and a significant milestone has been reached. The satellite has been equipped with its main instrument, the Infrared Sounder, hence the satellite’s name, and also the Copernicus Sentinel-4 instrument, an ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer, or UVN for short.
A new stamp for the Huginn mission has been released, taking inspiration from the mission’s Nordic name, Huginn, it presents a colourful design with a deep history.
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The Artemis II astronauts, set to launch on a trip around the Moon next year, stand in front of the Orion spacecraft’s European Service Module-2 (ESM-2) that will provide everything they need to thrive on their voyage to Earth’s natural satellite.
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