ESA Operations

@esa.int's CyberCUBE in-orbit laboratory mission has completed commissioning with GMV and Alén Space and has been handed over to ESA operations teams at #ESEC in Redu, Belgium. 👏 Congrats to the teams whose expertise and collaboration have guided CyberCUBE from launch to operations. 📷GMV

Our 'Name Hera's Pet Dino' competition has now officially closed, with more than 660 entries! Thanks to everyone who took part, we'll announce the winner early next month!

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

The 350th ESA Council has appointed two new ESA Directors: 🔹 Andrzej Banasiak, Director of Commercialisation and Industry Partnership 🔹 Nicolaus Hanowski, Director of Space Operations

Target orbit achieved for @esa.int’s #FLEX! 🎯💪 One month after launch on 15 September, the spacecraft has reached its target orbit and its initial tandem position with Copernicus Sentinel-3A. 🛰️ 🛰️ Stay tuned as teams at ESA’s #ESOC bring the spacecraft through commissioning. 📷ESA

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...

Check out the BBC Science Focus Magazine guide to ESA's Space Safety programme - focused on safeguarding our planet against threats from space - which includes Hera! www.sciencefocus.com/space/astero...

Hera’s initial 93-minute braking manoeuvre on Thursday morning is confirmed to have performed within required parameters; the follow-up braking manoeuvre is scheduled for Thursday 22 October. Want to know more? Ask our Hera Space Companion hera.esa.int

Next week's kid-oriented Science Days at Germany's Europa Park theme park include talks on Hera - & a chance to experience the mission in VR - as well as an appearance by ESA astronaut Alex Gerst (in German). Media welcome! www.esa.int/Newsroom/Pre...

What can nine hours in Earth’s shadow teach #Juice about how to explore #Jupiter? A lot! 🌑 Teams got to: 🔋 Test the spacecraft’s batteries 🔬 Do science in the dark 📷 Exercise autonomous navigation All while Earth helped steer Juice towards Jupiter. Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

Hera imagery of Deimos gathered during last year's flyby is helping to guide MMX observations - godspeed!

Join the Hera Asteroid Detectives during the school break at #ESTEC's visitor centre Space Expo in the Netherlands - and solve an asteroid mystery! This Hera-based interactive presentation is included in your main ticket www.space-expo.nl/en/agenda/he...

Check out Sawa’s mission patch, our second space weather nanosatellite mission! ☀️⚡🛰️🌍 The patch design shows the mermaid Sawa, based on a Polish legend. Why? 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

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...

🤝We're teaming up with IAU CPS to keep the night sky dark and quiet. Satellites' reflected light and radio frequency interference challenge professional astronomy as well as simple stargazing 👉 www.esa.int/Space_Safety... Credit: F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser

🚨🚨🚨On its second birthday in space, ESA's Hera mission for planetary defence has spotted its asteroid destination for the first time, from an approximate distance of 236 500 km away! The Didymos system is actually two asteroids, seen as a single pixel for now www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Launched two years ago today, ESA's Hera mission for planetary defence is preparing for its single most challenging activity since lift-off: the sustained braking manoeuvre allowing it to approach its target asteroids! www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

🎂Happy birthday Hera🛰️! ESA’s asteroid mission for planetary defence lifted off two years ago today! 📽️But where is Hera about to arrive at, and how might its discoveries one day help save planet Earth...?

Celebrate Hera's 2nd birthday in space online with mission principal investigator Patrick Michel at sciencekind.com at 1830 CEST (1730 UK BST) this evening - reserve your virtual seat now!

ESOC's dinosaur loved meeting visitors at Open Day. 🦖 Asteroids? Not so much. ☄️ Understandably, she's a huge fan of the @esa.int Space Safety #Hera mission! 🦕 Vote in the Hera Dino Contest 👉 www.esa.int/Space_Safety... #ESOCOpenDay #SpaceSafety

The looks on their faces says it all 🤩 Visitors at #ESOCOpenDay are getting a rare glimpse inside @esa.int ’s Mission Control as the #BepiColombo team simulate a key milestone on the road to #Mercury. 🛰️🌑☀️ This isn't a demo. It's the real thing – Mission Control in action! 💯✨ #ESA #JAXA

Today is the day – @esa.int’s #ESOC in Darmstadt is opening its doors! 🚀🎉 The site is currently busy welcoming around 2,000 visitors for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the place #WhereMissionsComeAlive, filled with fun for every space enthusiast. 📷ESA

Got a message for Mercury? 🎨Draw it 🎵Sing it ✍️Write it 🎥Film it Enter @esa.int's #WelcomeToMercury competition for a chance to win a trip to ESA Mission Control and witness BepiColombo's Mercury arrival on 9 December! 📅 Enter by 25 October Learn more & enter here 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🛰️🌏🌚 While Europe slept through the night, @esa.int's #Juice teams were hard at work. After a planned long eclipse through Earth's shadow, Juice successfully completed its Earth flyby, passed closest approach, and reacquired signal today at 15:01 CEST. 📡✅ Another milestone on the way to #Jupiter!

A small push for @esa.int & #JAXA #BepiColombo, a giant leap towards #Mercury! 🛰️➡️🌑 Without MTM, the Mercury Planetary Orbiter is preparing for orbit insertion. Yesterday's successful thruster burn tested the propulsion system & delivered a planned 11.4 m/s trajectory correction ✅ @science.esa.int

The ESA-JAXA Ramses planetary defence spacecraft has been turned on for the first time by its prime contractor in Italy – marking a major milestone in its time-critical development schedule: www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

Currently speeding through space at 12 km/s, ESA’s Hera spacecraft is due to reach its target Dimorphos asteroid this November. But if an astronaut were magically teleported onto Hera, what would they see & what would it happen if they let themself fall? www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

LEOP complete for @esa.int’s FLEX 💪 🛰️ Since #FLEX launched alongside #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C on 15 September, teams at #ESOC have been working around the clock to complete the spacecraft’s launch and early orbit phase (LEOP). Congratulations to all the FLEX teams and partners! 👏

ESA's proposed Neomir spacecraft will use the infrared to spot asteroids hidden in the Sun's glare. It is a planetary defence mission but one with considerable scientific potential - as shown in this week's inaugural Neomir Science Workshop in Nice, France neomir-nice.sciencesconf.org?lang=en

After 34 intense hours, the team at @esa.int’s #ESOC completed the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) for #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C, following its launch alongside #FLEX on 15 September. Congratulations to everyone who made this milestone possible. 👏 📷ESA/J.Mai

Check out the new mission patch for Swing, ESA’s first nanosat mission dedicated to space weather ☀️⚡🛰️🌍 Swing will monitor the ionosphere, represented by a yellow band between Earth and the Sun. More on Swing: www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

👩‍💻 👨‍💻 🧑‍💻 The teams at @esa.int’s #ESOC mission control will now spend around 70 hours guiding both #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C through their first days in orbit. 🛰️🛰️ For now, that’s it from us on this exciting dual launch! Congrats to all the teams involved! 🙌 📷 ESA

🎉 🎉 @esa.int’s #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C are in space and healthy: we don’t just have one mission, we have two! 🚀🛰️🛰️ 👏 Congratulations to the engineers, operators, flight dynamics experts, ground station teams and partners who made this remarkable dual-spacecraft launch a success.

We hear you! @esa.int’s #FLEX spacecraft has phoned home. 📞 At 5:22 CEST, teams at #ESOC mission control acquired the first signal from the spacecraft via KSAT’s Svalbard station. 📡 We now have signal from both spacecraft in this unique dual launch. 🛰️🛰️ 📷 ESA/ATG medialab

Hello #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C – we hear you loud and clear! KSAT‘s Troll ground station in Antarctica has acquired the satellite's first signal from space. 📡 Telemetry is now flowing into @esa.int’s #ESOC mission control in Germany. 🛰️ 📷 ESA/ATG medialab

We have lift-off! 🚀 #Copernicus #Sentinel- 3C’s first signals are scheduled to arrive at #ESOC mission control via a ground antenna at KSAT’s Troll ground station in Antarctica in about 60 minutes. After that, we expect to hear from @esa.int’s #FLEX. 💪

It’s time! ⏰ Tune in now on ESA YouTube or watch.esa.int/two/ to follow the unique dual launch of @esa.int’s #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C. Liftoff in appx. 25 minutes! 🚀 🛰️ 🛰️

📣 Go/no-go Roll Call complete! All stations are reporting green. Both mission teams at ESA's #ESOC have given their go for the launch of @esa.int’s #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C in appx. 60 minutes. 📷 ESA

#ESOC mission control has never been more ready. 💪 After completing key steps of the network countdown, the B shift has handed over to the A shift, now on console for the final countdown, liftoff and first signal acquisition for @esa.int's #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C. 📷 ESA/J.Mai

While #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C and @esa.int’s #FLEX missions prepare for liftoff, teams at #ESOC are performing final readiness checks with the supporting ground stations: 📡 ESA’s Kiruna station, KSAT’s Troll and Svalbard stations and SSC Space’s Alaska station. 🎥ESA

Don't miss it – @esa.int’s #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C are ready for liftoff tonight! 📺 Broadcast starts at 02:50 CEST. 🚀 Liftoff is scheduled for 03:21 CEST. Watch live at watch.esa.int/two/ or on ESA YouTube. 📺

The countdown is on! The ‘Network Countdown’ for the dual launch of @esa.int's #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C has begun! Launch, communication and control facilities around the world are gearing up ahead of liftoff at 3:21 CEST. Watch live at watch.esa.int/two/ or on ESA YouTube. 📷 ESA

Any questions? You can ask our Hera Space Companion right now - our AI fed with approved operational, scientific and technical knowledge, making ESA’s first planetary defence mission accessible to everyone! hera.esa.int

💡Key takeaways from the new ESA 2026 Space Environment Report: long-term projections worsen drastically. Read the bite-size summary of the yearly status report on space debris and the impact of mitigation measures 👉 esa.int/Space_Safety...

Meet a key member of our Hera asteroid mission team: the Hera Space Companion, not just an AI chatbot but a dynamic communication platform, ready to answer all your questions! hera.esa.int

How have @esa.int’s #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C operations teams been preparing for the upcoming dual launch on 15 September? A rigorous series of launch and early orbit simulations. 🎮 Read more about how #ESOC puts two teams to the test simultaneously 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup... 📷ESA

It’s almost time for a very special launch.🛰️🛰️ For the last few weeks, two mission operations teams have been gearing up for the simultaneous launch of @esa.int’s #FLEX and #Copernicus #Sentinel-3C on 15 September. 📺 Tune in and watch both missions begin their journey! www.esa.int/Applications...