European Space Agency news
Week in images: 19-23 October 2026
Week in images: 19-23 October 2026 Discover our week through the lens
Earth from Space: The pink city
Image: This image shows a detailed view of the city of Toulouse in southwest France, with its terracotta tiled rooftops lending it the nickname la ville rose, or the pink city.
350th ESA Council: Media information session
Video: 01:45:34 Watch the replay of the media information session where ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Council Chair at delegate level Juan Carlos Cortés outline the key decisions and main outcomes of the 350th Council meeting held...
ESA Open Days 2026
Video: 00:00:49 ESA Open Days 2026 welcomed over 23 000 visitors across its six establishments, giving the public the opportunity to discover more about Europe’s space activities, meet the people behind the missions and explore how ESA is shaping...
ESA Council approves appointment of two new direct...
The European Space Agency Council has approved the appointment of two new directors: Andrzej Banasiak as Director of Commercialisation and Industry Partnership, and Nicolaus Hanowski as Director of Space Operations.
Stars brewing in a nebulous cauldron
Image: Stars brewing in a nebulous cauldron
New brain for Galileo
Twelve Galileo Second Generation (G2) satellites will join the current fleet in the coming years. They will deliver unprecedented positioning, navigation and timing capabilities thanks to an array of new features, including a new signal generation module, the ‘brain'...
Euclid discovers new comet
The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope has discovered its first previously unknown comet, in images taken between 16 and 24 September 2026.
Earth from Space: West Antarctica
Image: This image over part of West Antarctica was captured by Copernicus Sentinel-3 on 30 September 2026.
Welcome home, Sophie Adenot
Video: 00:02:54 After 237 days and over 3,700 orbits around Earth aboard the International Space Station, Sophie Adenot is back on Earth!Following a handover to Crew-13, Sophie and her Crew-12 crewmates undocked on 7 October and splashed down off...
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot returns from her first...
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot has arrived back in Europe, landing in Cologne, Germany, following her return to Earth with Crew-12 after 237 days, nearly eight months, aboard the International Space Station for her εpsilon mission.
Week in images: 05-09 October 2026
Week in images: 05-09 October 2026 Discover our week through the lens
Earth from Space: Namibia’s biggest salt pan
Image: This image from Copernicus Sentinel-2, acquired on 5 April 2026, shows the Etosha National Park in northern Namibia.
Splashdown confirmed for Sophie Adenot
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot returned to Earth with Crew-12 after her nearly eight-month εpsilon mission to the International Space Station, splashing down off the coast of California, USA, at 15:34 GMT/17:34 CEST on 8 October 2026.
Sentinel-3C returns its first views of Earth
Just two weeks after it was launched, the Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellite returned its first images and measurements from two of its key instruments – a major milestone that confirms the satellite is working well and on the road to...
Solar Orbiter tracks origin of mysterious magnetic...
The European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has flown through an S-shaped kink known as a ‘switchback’ in the solar wind’s magnetic field. By fingerprinting the elusive particles within the switchback, Solar Orbiter has traced its origin back to...
Keeping the sky dark and quiet
For thousands of years, the night sky has inspired humanity, guided explorers and helped scientists unlock the mysteries of the Universe. As the number of satellites in orbit grows, their reflected light and radio frequency interference become a challenge...
Mars’s oddest cloud may be even odder than we thou...
Scientists using the European Space Agency's Mars Express, in combination with a state-of-the-art meteorological model of the Red Planet, have found that there may be some very exotic physics behind Mars’s most curious cloud.




























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