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We are all familiar with the bolts of lightning that accompany heavy storms. While these flashes originate in storm clouds and strike downwards, a much more elusive type forms higher up in the atmosphere and shoots up towards space. So, what are the chances of somebody taking photographs of these rarely seen, brief ‘transient luminous events’ at the exact same time as a satellite orbits directly above with the event leaving its signature in the satellite’s data?

Like an infant adjusting to the new world, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is relearning how to move around the weightless environment of space. His cradle is a familiar place though – this is Thomas’s second mission to the International Space Station, the orbiting lab where he where he broke records for science during his first six months in orbit.  

Hundreds of satellite images spanning over 25 years have been compiled to show the evolution of Greece’s ever-changing coastlines.

• Primeiros filmes da Solar Orbiter mostram ejeções de massa coronal (CMEs)
• Um par de CMEs foi detetado por vários instrumentos durante o sobrevoo ao Sol em fevereiro
• CMEs são erupções de partículas da atmosfera solar que explodem no Sistema Solar e têm o potencial de desencadear o clima espacial na Terra
• A Solar Orbiter começará a sua principal missão científica em novembro deste ano
• A Solar Orbiter é uma missão espacial de colaboração internacional entre a ESA e a NASA

• First Solar Orbiter movies showing coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
• A pair of CMEs were detected by multiple instruments during February’s close flyby of the Sun
• CMEs are eruptions of particles from the solar atmosphere that blast out into the Solar System and have the potential to trigger space weather at Earth
• Solar Orbiter will begin its main science mission in November this year
• Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA

We need a name for our new spacecraft. Its mission? To spot potentially hazardous solar storms before they reach Earth.

Between them, our greatest minds have come up with ... not very much.

ESA needs you.

Send us your suggestions now.

ESA is forging ahead with advanced developments in two flagship space transportation demonstration projects, Prometheus and Phoebus. This will benefit Europe’s new Ariane 6 launcher in the near-term, and prepare for a new generation of European launch vehicles in the next decade.

Space-based technology that enables charities and local authorities to deliver vital support to the people who need help as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been successfully piloted in the UK.

Week in images: 10 - 14 May 2021

Discover our week through the lens

The pieces are stacking up for the launch of Artemis 1 mission around the Moon and back. The massive Space Launch Systems (SLS) rocket that will launch the first crewless test flight of the Orion spacecraft, powered by the European Service Module, is being integrated at the Vehicle Assemble Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

Visible in this image are the twin solid fuel rocket boosters, now fully stacked atop the mobile launcher. The boosters will be mated with the rocket’s 65 m tall core stage that recently barged in to Florida aboard the Pegasus barge on 27 April after successful testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. 

Once the rocket stages are ready to go, the Orion spacecraft and additional flight hardware are next up for integration.

Since our last Orion and the European Service Module update for Artemis I, the spacecraft has moved, from the NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout facility, a few kilometres down the road to the Multi Payload Processing Facility. The names of these buildings give the game away. The first Orion spacecraft has been checked out and is ready for the next step on the road to space: processing for launch.

Fuelling was completed on 1 April, after which the system will be serviced in high pressure helium that serves as a pressurisation agent to the European Service Module propellant tanks, ensuring the correct pressure at the engine inlets.

Eventually, the spacecraft will be hoisted to the top of the fully stacked SLS rocket.

Read more updates on the Orion blog. 

The European Service Module is ESA’s contribution to NASA’s Orion spacecraft that will send astronauts, including the first European, to the Moon and beyond. Follow Europe’s role in the mission here.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Qeshm Island – the largest island in Iran.

This video summarises advice given by ESA astronauts during the ESA Astronaut Careers Fair on 22 April 2021. Samantha Cristoforetti, Thomas Reiter and André Kuipers have all flown in space as ESA astronauts and offer their perspectives on the selection process and the work and life of an astronaut. See the astronaut vacancy notice and other opportunities to work at ESA at https://jobs.esa.int

Further information on the astronaut selection may be found in the Astronaut Applicant Handbook and in the astronaut selection FAQs. If your question is not answered in these documents, you have the option to email astronaut.recruitment@esa.int.

Applications will be accepted until 28 May 2021.

The world’s most powerful space science telescope has opened its primary mirror for the last time on Earth.

As part of the international James Webb Space Telescope’s final tests, the 6.5 meter (21 feet 4 inch) mirror was commanded to fully expand and lock itself into place, just like it would in space. The conclusion of this test represents the team’s final checkpoint in a long series of tests designed to ensure Webb’s 18 hexagonal mirrors are prepared for a long journey in space, and a life of profound discovery. After this, all of Webb’s many movable parts will have confirmed in testing that they can perform their intended operations after being exposed to the expected launch environment.

Making the testing conditions close to what Webb will experience in space helps to ensure the observatory is fully prepared for its science mission one million miles away from Earth.

Commands to unlatch and deploy the side panels of the mirror were relayed from Webb’s testing control room at Northrop Grumman, in Redondo Beach, California. The software instructions sent, and the mechanisms that operated are the same as those used in space. Special gravity offsetting equipment was attached to Webb to simulate the zero-gravity environment in which its complex mechanisms will operate. All of the final thermal blanketing and innovative shielding designed to protect its mirrors and instruments from interference were in place during testing.

Read more.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and CSA. The telescope will launch on an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

Spacewalking is a major highlight of any astronaut’s career. But there is a downside: putting on your spacesuit means sharing some previously-worn underlayers. A new ESA study is looking into how best to keep these items clean and hygienic as humans venture on to the Moon and beyond.

A new international project office that will support climate modelling activities and help to boost global understanding of the changing environment is to be hosted by ESA.

Week in images: 03 - 07 May 2021

Discover our week through the lens

To celebrate the premiere of Coldplay's latest single 'Higher Power’, the band linked up for an extraterrestrial video chat with French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who is currently on a six-month mission on board the International Space Station. A specially recorded performance of Higher Power - featuring dancing alien holograms - was beamed up to Thomas, who gave the track its very first play on board the Station. The song’s premiere followed a conversation which took in similarities between life on tour and life on the Space Station, how planet Earth looks from space and its fragility; and how Thomas listens to music in microgravity.