On 8 September 2024, the first of four Cluster satellites will return home and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere in an uncontrolled ‘targeted reentry’ over a remote area of the South Pacific Ocean.
Space News & Blog Articles
Since ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) flew by the Moon and Earth earlier this week, we’ve seen images from its monitoring cameras and we’ve seen images from its navigation camera. Today we reveal the first images from its scientific camera, JANUS, designed to take detailed, high-resolution photos of Jupiter and its icy moons.
As preparations continue to launch the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite on 4 September, the team at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, has bid farewell to their precious satellite as it was sealed from view within the Vega rocket fairing.
On 8 September 2024, the first of four satellites that make up ESA’s Cluster mission will reenter Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area.
The European Service Module that will power the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis III mission to the Moon is soon on its way to the United States.
Launched in May, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has been making waves, with the first images from three of its scientific instruments already delivered. Now, the spotlight is firmly on the atmospheric lidar, the most advanced of the satellite’s four instruments.
ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) has successfully completed a world-first lunar-Earth flyby, using the gravity of Earth to send it Venus-bound, on a shortcut to Jupiter through the inner Solar System.
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ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) returns to Earth on 19–20 August 2024, to complete the world's first Lunar-Earth gravity assist. Flight controllers will guide the spacecraft past the Moon and then Earth itself, ‘braking’ the spacecraft. This manoeuvre may seem counterintuitive but will allow Juice to take a shortcut via Venus on it's way to Jupiter.
Φsat-2, ESA’s groundbreaking cubesat designed to revolutionise Earth observation with artificial intelligence, has launched.
ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite has been launched, paving the way for a potential constellation of satellites that would provide more frequent data not only to enhance short-term weather forecasts for Arctic nations, but for the world as a whole.
ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite and Φsat-2 missions are ready for lift-off from Vandenberg, California, with a target launch date of 16 August 2024.
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Firefighters in Greece are battling a rapidly spreading wildfire that has swept across several neighbourhoods in Athens, Greece, on Monday. Thousands of residents have been evacuated as the massive fire reached the suburbs of Athens, with some flames reaching heights of 25 m.
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The effects of the climate crisis are felt more acutely in the Arctic than anywhere else on the planet. The weather in the Arctic is not only severe, but it changes extremely quickly. More frequent data are urgently needed to improve weather forecasts for this susceptible polar region.