ESA Director General Jan Woerner will meet the press at the traditional start-of-year briefing on the activities and challenges for 2017.

The partners for SmallGEO's first flight, Hispasat 36W-1, will meet the press. The Director General and representatives from ESA's telecom directorate, Hispasat, OHB System AG and the DLR German Aerospace Center will brief the media and take questions.

Europe's new versatile small geostationary platform, SmallGEO, will be launched on its first mission as the commercial telecom satellite Hispasat 36W-1 at 02:03 CET on 28 January.

ESA and several of its UK partners (STFC, Satellite Applications Catapult, ECMWF) will host a press tour, presenting how Copernicus unlocks the potential of satellite technology to help countries respond to climate change and resilience challenges.