Space News & Blog Articles

The target launch date for the James Webb Space Telescope is confirmed for 25 December, as early as possible within the launch window starting at 12:20 GMT / 13:20 CET.

Image: Testing radar to peer into Jupiter’s moons

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We’re almost ready to say goodbye to 2021, a year in which ESA once more succeeded in continuing operations in a challenging global situation, and creating some important milestones in the field of European spaceflight.

Webb: seeing farther

Comet Leonard, a mass of space dust, rock and ice about a kilometre across is heading for a close pass of the Sun on 3 January, and the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has been watching its evolution over the last days.

ESA and NASA will be broadcasting live as the James Webb Space Telescope is launched to space on ESA’s Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 12:20 GMT / 13:20 CET on Friday 24 December.

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Join ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station's "window to the world" and pan around to enjoy the view.

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On Friday 17 December, the Ariane 5 rocket fairing was closed around the James Webb Space Telescope. This protective fairing, or ‘nose cone’, will shield the telescope during liftoff and its journey through the atmosphere on 24 December. 

On Friday 17 December, the Ariane 5 rocket fairing was closed around the James Webb Space Telescope. This protective fairing, or ‘nose cone’, will shield the telescope during liftoff and its journey through the atmosphere on 24 December.

The next SpaceX resupply vehicle is packed with European science, ready for delivery to the International Space Station just in time for Christmas.

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

Green and digital transition in Europe will benefit from ESA expertise that supports national plans for investing recovery and resilience funds in space projects.

Year in images 2021

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Replay of the 16 December 2021 online press briefing about the James Webb Space Telescope.

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.

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.

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’.

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.

Image: Lunar robot wars