Spotted in space

Operations image of the week: China’s Tinagong-1 space station seen in orbit in a radar image just days before its expected reentry

Concentrated

Operations image of the week: BepiColombo mission controllers sending test commands to the actual spacecraft in preparation for launch

Made for Mercury

Operations image of the week: An engineering replica of BepiColombo will help to troubleshoot software before being uploaded to the real spacecraft at Mercury

Goonhilly

Operations image of the week: A large radio dish at Goonhilly, UK, once used for TV broadcasts, will communicate with deep-space craft

Space radiation on Earth

Operations image of the week: A new particle accelerator will help engineers protect astronauts and sensitive spacecraft electronics against destructive cosmic radiation

Asteroid Day takes off

Replay: On 15 February, ESA specialists joined astronauts, scientists and international experts to kick off 2018 Asteroid Day activities

Tinkerer’s lab

ESA’s mission control centre hosts a unique laboratory where engineers tinker with hardware and software to ensure these can support missions in space, where consequences matter.

Latest News

Seventh Sentinel satellite launched for Copernicus 25 April 2018

Seventh Sentinel satellite launched for Copernicus 25 April 2018 The second Sentinel-3 satellite, Copernicus Sentinel-3B, was launched today, joining its identical twin Sentinel-3A in orbit. This pairing of satellites increases coverage and data delivery for the European Union’s Copernicus environment programme.

ESA teams ready for space24 April 2018

ESA teams ready for space24 April 2018 Tomorrow’s launch of Sentinel-3B will complete the Sentinel-3 constellation and represents the culmination of months of training to fly Europe’s latest Copernicus satellite.

ESA reentry expertise30 March 2018

ESA reentry expertise30 March 2018 Every week, on average, a substantial, inert satellite drops into our atmosphere and burns up. Monitoring these reentries and warning European civil authorities has become routine work for ESA’s space debris experts.

Join us for #Sentinel3 launch21 March 2018

Join us for #Sentinel3 launch21 March 2018 Be a part of Europe’s Earth observation revolution by applying to join experts at one of two Sentinel-3B launch #SocialSpace activities on 25 April.

Goonhilly’s GHY-6 antenna was built in 1985 and features a 32 m-diameter dish - it will be upgraded under ESA technical oversight to provide high bit-rate data links for future deep-space missions

Goonhilly goes deep space22 February 2018

Goonhilly goes deep space22 February 2018 Until now, if you’re an entrepreneur planning future missions beyond Earth, you’d have to ask a big space agency to borrow their deep-space antennas. Now, thanks to the UK’s county of Cornwall and ESA, you’ll have a commercial option, too.

The Main Control Room at ESA's European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany.

ESA joins reentry campaign06 November 2017

ESA joins reentry campaign06 November 2017 ESA experts will host an international campaign to monitor the reentry of a spacecraft expected early next year.

News Archive