Space News & Blog Articles

Last month, ESA’s woolly astronaut became Europe's first lunar ‘lamb-bassador’: Shaun the Sheep returned home from his Artemis I mission to a hero's welcome and then was herded off on a celebratory post-flight tour.

Week in images: 08-12 May 2023

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the Japanese island of Nishinoshima, in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

Help us visualise how much of the Universe we know and don’t know and win a trip to mission control as ESA’s Euclid mission launches into space no earlier than July to unlock the mysteries of the Dark Universe.

Mars has some of the most impressive volcanoes in the Solar System. ESA’s Mars Express has now imaged the pitted, fissured flank of the planet’s second-tallest: Ascraeus Mons.

Astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our Solar System in infrared light. But to their surprise, they found that the dusty structures are much more complex than the asteroid and Kuiper dust belts of our Solar System. 

ESA’s wind mission, Aeolus, will soon be lowered in orbit leading to its fiery reentry and burn-up through Earth’s atmosphere. ESA’s efforts to ensure a safe return go well beyond international standards and place the Agency in the lead for space safety.

Millions of supporters avidly follow football clubs across Europe, from Manchester United to Bayern Munich. Now ESA is partnering with UEFA to use space to help ensure the safety of football fans and the sustainability of the sport – as well as exploring other ways in which space can help promote football.

Week in images: 01-05 May 2023

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over El Oued, in northeast Algeria, about 80 km west of the border with Tunisia.

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Europe’s latest weather satellite, the Meteosat Third Generation Imager, has just delivered its first image of Earth. What does this satellite do exactly? And what does this mean for weather forecasting? Learn more about the Meteosat Third Generation and how this new generation of satellites is set to revolutionise weather forecasting in Europe.

Europe’s latest weather satellite, the Meteosat Third Generation Imager, has just delivered its first view of Earth – revealing conditions over Europe, Africa and the Atlantic in remarkable detail.   

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ESA astronaut candidates Sophie Adenot, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Rosemary Coogan, Raphaël Liégeois and Marco Sieber took up duty at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) on 3 April 2023 to be trained to the highest level of standards as specified by the International Space Station partners. 

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ESA's astronaut candidates of the class of 2022 at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

What are the next steps for making human spaceflight more inclusive, accessible, and safer? How can designing for space accessibility improve accessibility on Earth? Where does ESA’s parastronaut feasibility project stand?

Week in images: 24-28 April 2023

Juice’s ice-penetrating RIME antenna has not yet been deployed as planned. During the first week of commissioning, an issue arose with the 16-metre-long Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna, which is preventing it from being released from its mounting bracket.

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The European Space Agency (ESA) is currently training five astronaut candidates for future missions to the International Space Station and beyond. Their training programme consists of three phases: The first phase is basic training, which covers medical exams, fitness assessments, and space programmes and systems. The second phase, the pre-assignment training, is advanced training in specific areas such as systems training, vehicle training, robotics and EVA-training. The third phase is mission-specific training, which is tailored to the tasks and experiments that astronauts will perform during their mission. ESA's astronaut training programme also includes training for exploration of the lunar surface, as astronauts will need to apply their skills and knowledge to new challenges in future space missions beyond Earth orbit. 

Image: Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 8 April 2023, this image shows Los Angeles and part of the hinterland in Southern California.

ESA is inviting companies with an interest in merchandising to submit a tender to become the space agency’s official ESA-branded merchandise supplier.