European Space Agency

CRISTAL puts its solar wings to the test! Europe's new ice-monitoring satellite has completed assembly and successfully tested its solar panel deployment on the ground. Environmental tests at ESA's facilities in the Netherlands are up next. 📷 Airbus 🔗 Read more: www.esa.int/Applications...

🎙️ Journalists are invited to meet astronaut Sophie Adenot at our Headquarters in Paris on 2 November at 11:30 CET, for her first in-person press conference since returning from the International Space Station. Accreditation is open until 29 October: blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-me...

First European woman on the International Space Station 👩‍🚀✨ 25 years ago, in October 2001, Claudie Haigneré spent eight days aboard the Space Station, conducting scientific research and helping write a new chapter in European spaceflight history. @esa.int

Science Days are underway at Europa-Park! 🔬🚀 ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and experts are bringing space to the public through demonstrations, hands-on activities, VR experiences, robotics and more. Read more: www.esa.int/Newsroom/Pre...

Hera’s second braking manoeuvre yesterday reduced the spacecraft’s velocity relative to the Didymos and Dimorphos system by 70 m/s from a distance of 2300 km away. A trio of smaller ‘transition’ manoeuvres this coming week will reduce Hera’s relative velocity down to near zero. hera.esa.int

🕹️ Play a game, train a model, map the Moon. Players of @esa.int's IMPACT game marked craters on real lunar images, creating data used to train an AI model that detected 3192 potential craters in this patch of the Moon measuring 1.25 x 1.27 km. 🔗 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

This week we held the 350th ESA Council in Paris, an important step on the way to the Intermediate Ministerial Meeting (IMM) on Exploration to be held in December in Rome. We made good progress on the road to a more ambitous future for Europe. 👉 lnkd.in/p/dqd8F_EM

At its 350th meeting, our Council advanced key priorities for Europe in space, including the future of European space exploration, ESA–EU cooperation and preparations for upcoming Ministerial meetings. Read more: www.esa.int/Newsroom/Pre...

🔴 LIVE NOW: media briefing on the outcomes of the 350th ESA Council. 📺 Watch: watch.esa.int/Two/

Meet Argonaut: Europe's lunar lander programme 🌙 🚀 Launching on Ariane 6 rockets by end of 2030, Argonaut will deliver technology demonstrators 🤖, infrastructure 🏗️, science 🔬 and cargo 📦 to the Moon.

📡🌕 Lunar Link is complete. @esa.int’s lunar telecommunications system is now fully assembled, tested and ready for space. Built by ESA and European industry led by Thales Alenia Space, Lunar Link represents years of engineering excellence from across Europe. 🔗 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

Join us live on 22 October at 14:00 CEST for a media briefing on the main outcomes of the 350th ESA Council, taking place this week at ESA Headquarters in Paris. Watch live: watch.esa.int/Two/

Galileo Second Generation is taking shape. 🛰️ A new signal generation module, designed to be reprogrammed in orbit, will bring greater flexibility, accuracy and resilience to Europe’s satellite navigation system. Read more: esa.int/Applications/Satellite_navigation/Galileo/New_brain_for_Galileo

Bepi and Mio are almost at Mercury, and they would love to hear from you 💌 Send them a #WelcomeToMercury message for a chance to win a trip to ESA's mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, this December. Wish them well 👉 esa.int/WelcomeToMercury 🫶 🔭

Next stop: Phobos & Deimos 🌑 MMX has successfully launched from Tanegashima, Japan. Its mission is to observe Mars’s mysterious moons, collect a sample from the surface of Phobos and return it to Earth. Discover more 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... 🔭 🧪

Happy launchversary #BepiColombo ! 🎂🚀🎉 Here’s to an extraordinarily complex, challenging, transformative mission! ☀️🌑🛰️ @esa.int #JAXA #ISAS #Mercury @science.esa.int

🔴 Ten Mars-velous years at the Red Planet! 🎉 Here’s to a decade full of: ✨ Discovery 🤝 Teamwork 🛰️ Evolving capabilities And to all that is yet to come! Thank you, TGO! Learn more here 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

Euclid discovers its first comet ☄️ That's quite impressive for a Dark Universe detective 🕵️ meant to take deep, steady images of distant galaxies, not fast-moving tiny objects. Discover more about the comet 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪

🌕🚀 Over the past two weeks we’ve gone from lunar laser ranging to resource prospecting and lunar communications. Here’s a recap of @esa.int’s upcoming lunar science and tech demo missions, in order of launch 👇 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

A prolific decade in Mars orbit. @esa.int’s Trace Gas Orbiter slipped into orbit around Mars at 17:24 CEST on 19 October 2016. Here are some impressive facts and figures about our largest Mars explorer 👇 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Copernicus Sentinel-3C has more to show us👀 On 2 October, its Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer captured this false-colour image of Hurricane Rachel over the eastern Pacific Ocean. The image was taken using the instrument's visible channels: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

The future of space activities depends on the choices we make today 🌎🛰️♻️ On 4 and 5 November, the 8th Summit for Space Sustainability will bring policymakers, industry leaders, researchers and civil society to Brasília to discuss practical solutions for a safer and more sustainable future in space.

📢 On 14 October, during the NAVISP Industry Days in Rome, Italy, @esa.int signed three contracts to support resilient rail transportation and aviation in Europe. These contracts will develop alternative positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions.

Hera is approaching asteroid Didymos, where it will study the effects of NASA’s DART impact. The initial braking manoeuvre has bee successfully completed, bringing Hera another step closer to its arrival in November. Want to know more? Ask our Hera A Companion 👉 hera.esa.int

🌕 Big missions aren't the only way to discover the Moon. Through the Moon Explore initiative, @esa.int is developing a new generation of smaller, faster missions to investigate the lunar environment and its resources. 🔗 Find out more: www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

An @esa project developed a new tool that generates complete life-cycle assessments of space hardware. The software can aid the eco-design of spacecraft, launchers, ground stations and complete missions. The ACT tool is being developed by EcoDeltaV: www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

💡 The latest ESA Academy Experiments team is from the University of Bologna, Italy, and explores how a swarm of autonomous robots could help tackle space debris 🛰️ Meet Star-bots ⭐ www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

This is Namibia’s Etosha Pan, the country’s largest salt pan, captured by Copernicus Sentinel-2. 🌍 Vegetation appears in striking red in this false-colour view, while water across the salt pans appears in shades of green and deep blue. Learn more: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Flight number 10 on the horizon! 🚀 With four P160C-based boosters, Ariane 6 will launch another set of 36 Amazon Leo satellites from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Liftoff is set for 23 November 2026. Stay tuned for more updates!

🌍South Africa has the famous Table Mountain.. 🔴Mars has Amazonis Mensa, which is three times as high! And can you spot the ancient lava flows? Zoom into this slice of Mars shaped by wind and lava 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... 🔭 🧪 #planetsci

👃 Teaching a robot to sniff the Moon 🌕 Flying on the joint JAXA-ISRO LUPEX @esa.int’s Exploration Mass Spectrometer will investigate the Moon's extremely thin atmosphere, acting as a sensitive nose to identify chemical species near the lunar surface 👩‍🔬 🔗 Find out more: www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🛞 A rover wheel that searches for water on the Moon 🌕 @esa.int's Rover Permittivity Sensor is built directly into a rover wheel and will measure the electrical properties of lunar soil to search for hidden water ice beneath the surface 💧 🔗 Find out more: www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

ESA Open Days 2026 is a wrap! 🚀 A huge thank you to everyone who visited us, met our teams, explored our missions, and shared in the excitement of space exploration. Your curiosity, enthusiasm, and support are what make moments like these possible. Until next time 💙

🔴 LIVE at 11:00 CEST. ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot will hold her first news conference since returning from the ISS. Join Sophie and our Director of Exploration Daniel Neuenschwander as they reflect on the #εpsilon mission and answer media questions. ▶️ Watch live: watch.esa.int

🔴 Live in 30 min: ESA DG Josef Aschbacher opens a panel discussion on protecting Europe’s critical infrastructure through satellite sovereignty. #WFS2026 Watch from 15:30 CEST 👉 www.youtube.com/live/F9mg8so...

Welcome home, Sophie! After nearly eight months on the International Space Station, our astronaut Sophie Adenot has returned to Europe. She will now begin post-flight recovery and research activities at our European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @exploration.esa.int

🧪 Farewell, FSL. After more than 18 years aboard the International Space Station, @esa.int's Fluid Science Laboratory begins its final chapter. Today astronauts start disassembling one of the longest-serving science facilities in Europe's Columbus laboratory. 🔗 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

Imagine throwing a ball up into the sky so hard it just keeps going - that's our Hera mission, now nearing its target asteroids across millions of km of space. 🛰️ 🪨 But how does Hera know where it is & where it needs to go? Thanks goes to ESA's Flight Dynamics team! www.esa.int/Space_Safety...