ESA Top News

Europe’s new launch vehicle, Vega-C, is near completion. Elements will soon be shipped to Kourou for assembly and preparation for Vega-C’s inaugural flight.

This new launcher improves its Vega predecessor by offering more power and versatility at similar cost. This new design allows Vega-C to transport larger and heavier payloads into space making it a world-class competitor on the global launcher market while ensuring Europe’s independent access to space.

In an alternate reality playing out at this year’s international Planetary Defense Conference, a fictional asteroid crashes over Europe, 'destroying' a region about 100 km wide near the Czech Republic and German border. The scenario was imagined, but the people who took part are very real, and the lessons learnt will shape our ability to respond to dangerous asteroids for years to come.

Week in images: 26 - 30 April 2021

Discover our week through the lens

One tends to think of mountain glaciers as slow moving, their gradual passage down a mountainside visible only through a long series of satellite imagery or years of time-lapse photography. However, new research shows that glacier flow can be much more dramatic, ranging from about 10 metres a day to speeds that are more like that of avalanches, with obvious potential dire consequences for those living below.

Antofagasta, a port city in northern Chile, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spits fire as it lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 23 April at 05:49 local time. On board are ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

The crew of four spent around 23 hours orbiting Earth and catching up with the International Space Station after their launch before docking to the Node-2 Harmony module, marking the start of ESA’s six-month mission Alpha.

Thomas is the first European to be launched to space on a US spacecraft in over a decade. The new Crew Dragon ships four astronauts at a time, allowing more people to live and work on the International Space Station doing more research for scientists on Earth.

Alpha is Thomas’ second space mission, and everything is set to be bigger and brighter. A Russian laboratory module, scheduled to arrive in the summer with a European robotic arm, will offer more ways of maintaining the International Space Station and supporting spacewalkers as they work outside. Thomas will help set up this arm and prepare it for use during the Alpha mission.

Over 200 international experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space. Of the 40 European ones, 12 are new experiments led by the French space agency CNES.

At the end of the Alpha mission in October, Thomas will take over commander of the International Space Station for a brief period and welcome ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer on his first flight to space.

Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found on Twitter @esaspaceflight, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.

• ESA, in cooperation with the Australian Space Agency, will construct a new 35-metre, deep space dish antenna at its existing ground station in New Norcia, Western Australia
• The 620-tonne antenna will help ESA provide crucial communication links to its growing fleet of deep space missions
• It will be ESA’s second 35-metre antenna at the site and its fourth in total
• The joint announcement was made during a virtual meeting held between the heads of ESA and the Australian Space Agency on 29 April

Liftoff of Vega from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana came at 02:50 BST on 29 April (03:50 CEST; 22:50 local time on 28 April) to deliver Pléiades Neo-3 and five auxiliary payloads into their respective orbits.

A precision magnetic valve originally designed to help steer a lander down to a comet has found a surprise terrestrial use through ESA’s Technology Transfer and Patent Office: adding flavours to beverages within a few thousandths of a second per each can or bottle.

Once every two years, asteroid experts around the globe meet up and pretend an asteroid impact is imminent. Why? To prepare for the likely – but plausible – scenario in which this comes true.

With challenges imposed by the Covid pandemic, engineers building and testing ESA’s Biomass satellite have had to come up with some clever working methods to keep on track whilst adhering to safety rules. The result is that the satellite structure is not only complete, but has also undergone a series of demanding tests to ensure it will withstand the rigours of liftoff – all bringing the launch of this extraordinary forest carbon mapping mission one step closer.

Space is getting crowded. Old satellites, rocket bodies and fragments of both are leaving little space for new satellites to reside in that is free from debris.

The risk of collision with debris and even functioning satellites is increasing, especially in low-Earth orbit, putting many of Earth’s climate, ocean and land monitoring missions in harm’s way.

ESA is working alongside private business to clean up space by developing new missions and technologies that will remove debris from orbit. No space agency or business could solve the debris problem alone, but if it becomes technologically feasible – and profitable – to take care of our space environment, it will be much easier to do so.

Computer simulations show that the miniature solar flares nicknamed ‘campfires’, discovered last year by ESA’s Solar Orbiter, are likely driven by a process that may contribute significantly to the heating of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. If confirmed by further observations this adds a key piece to the puzzle of what heats the solar corona – one of the biggest mysteries in solar physics.

• ESA’s second Test-Bed Telescope has seen ‘first light’.
• It will help spot asteroids in space that could pose a risk to Earth.
• This telescope is the latest step towards ESA’s planned Flyeye telescope network.
• It is hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

A timelapse from various angles of the launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon Endeavour leaving Earth from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

The rocket lifted off at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time) on 23 April 2021 from Launchpad 39A in Cape Canaveral with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

On 24 April at 11:08 CEST the Crew-2 caught up with the International Space Station and docked with its Harmony module, marking the start of Thomas’ Alpha mission.

Thomas is the first ESA astronaut to fly in space in a vehicle other than the Russian Soyuz or the US Space Shuttle, and the first ESA astronaut to leave Earth from Florida, USA, in over a decade. This is his second flight, his first mission called Proxima saw Thomas fly to the Space Station on a Soyuz from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and his expedition broke records for amount of hours spent on research at the time.

The Copernicus Masters 2021 competition is now open for submissions. This international competition awards prizes to innovative solutions, developments and ideas for business and society that use satellite data from the Copernicus programme.

For almost a decade, world asteroid experts have been meeting every two years at the Planetary Defense Conference and pretending an asteroid impact is imminent. Why? To prepare for the unlikely – but plausible – scenario in which this comes true.

Highlights of the launch and first day in space of ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet on the Alpha mission.

On 24 April at 11:08 (CEST) the Crew Dragon spacecraft with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide docked with the International Space Station’s Node-2 Harmony module, marking the start of ESA’s six-month mission Alpha.

The crew spent around 23 hours orbiting Earth and catching up with the International Space Station after their launch on 23 April at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time). The launch to docking went smoothly in Crew Dragon Endeavour

Thomas is the first ESA astronaut to fly in space in a vehicle other than the Russian Soyuz or the US Space Shuttle, and the first ESA astronaut to leave Earth from Florida, USA, in over a decade. This is his second flight, his first mission called Proxima saw Thomas fly to the Space Station on a Soyuz from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and his expedition broke records for amount of hours spent on research at the time.

Mission Alpha video resources for media

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher congratulates the Dragon Crew 2 shortly after they enter the Space Station. ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide arrived at the Station one day after their launch on 23 April at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time).

Thomas is the first ESA astronaut to fly in space in a vehicle other than the Russian Soyuz or the US Space Shuttle, and the first ESA astronaut to leave Earth from Florida, USA, in over a decade. This is his second flight, his first mission called Proxima saw Thomas fly to the Space Station on a Soyuz from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and his expedition broke records for amount of hours spent on research at the time.