N° 71–2025: Media invitation: ESA’s Argonaut Press Conference

Programme – Thursday 20 November (times in CET)

09:15 - 09:45                 Arrival of media representatives

10:00 - 11:00                 Press conference

11:00 - 12:00                 Opportunity for 1-to-1interviews with VIPS and experts

Participants

Daniel Neuenschwander, Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, ESA

Sara Pastor, Lunar Projects Group Leader, ESA

Giampiero di Paolo, Senior Vice President Observation, Exploration and Navigation Domain & CEO of Thales Alenia Space Italy

Richard Thorburn, CEO of Thales Alenia Space UK

Chiara Pedersoli, CEO OHB System AG

Yvan Baillion, Director of European Business at Thales Alenia Space France

Roberto Angelini, Head of the Domain Exploration and Science Thales Alenia Space Italy

Rob Selby, Vice President of Nammo Space

About Argonaut

The European Space Agency (ESA) lunar lander programme, Argonaut, represents Europe’s autonomous, versatile and reliable access to the Moon. The programme is a key part of ESA’s lunar strategy and will support future robotic and crewed missions, contributing to international efforts to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.

Argonaut will play a key role in international lunar exploration, supporting NASA's Artemis programme while providing Europe with independent access to the Moon. As part of ESA's Explore2040 strategy, Argonaut is a fully European project designed to be flexible and resilient to changes in evolving global exploration efforts while contributing to Europe's vision for lunar exploration.

Argonaut can transport a variety of cargo, including vital resources for astronauts such as food, water and air, as well as rovers, science instruments, and infrastructures for communication and power generation.

Media registration

Interested journalists are kindly requested to register by 18:00 CET on Monday 17 November: https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form. Please chose either in-person or virtual participation.

Images

ESA's Photo Library for Professionals:

https://www.esa-photolibrary.com/

Terms and conditions for using ESA images

For questions or more information related to ESA images, please contact directly spaceinimages@esa.int

Videos

ESA's Video Library for Professionals:

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos

Terms and conditions for using ESA videos

For questions or more information related to ESA videos, please contact directly spaceinvideos@esa.int

Social media

Follow ESA on:

X: @esa 

Bluesky: @esa.int

Facebook: @EuropeanSpaceAgency 

Instagram: @europeanspaceagency 

YouTube: ESA 

LinkedIn: European Space Agency - ESA 

Pinterest: European Space Agency - ESA 

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space. 

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. 

ESA has 23 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia are Associate Members. 

ESA has established formal cooperation with four Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement. 

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions. 

Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int