ESA Top Multimedia

Timelapse of Europe’s first reusable rocket main stage demonstrator – Themis – getting wrapped and prepared for shipment, ready to head to its launch pad at Esrange Space Centre in Sweden.

Themis encompasses all the elements for a reusable rocket stage. The Themis programme includes developing the flight test model that requires new technologies from European countries such as the vehicle landing legs, grid-fin aerodynamic stabilisers, light-weight fuel tanks, distributed power systems, avionics and reduced-diameter multi-engine bay. New flight algorithms, derived from previous European projects, will be key to make Themis land safely after flight.

Themis was developed as a European Space Agency future launchers preparatory programme with ArianeGroup as prime contractor and multiple European industrial partners. Themis’s first flight campaign is being funded by the European Commission Salto programme.

Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA head of Space and Robotic Exploration, explains that Ignis mission will include an ambitious technological and scientific programme with several experiments led by ESA and proposed by the Polish space industry.

On 26 June 2025, ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and his crewmates arrived to the International Space Station on the Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4).

The Polish project astronaut is the second of a new generation of European astronauts to fly on a commercial human spaceflight opportunity with Axiom Space.

This animation demonstrates why the asteroid 2024 YR4 was only discovered two days after it  passed Earth in December 2024, and why we will have to wait three years to know for certain whether it will impact the Moon on 22 December 2032. 

2024 YR4 approached Earth from the day side of the planet, from a region of the sky hidden by the bright light of the Sun. This region is a significant blind spot for our current asteroid warning systems. 

In mid-2025, it faded from view from humankind’s most powerful telescopes. While astronomers were able to study the asteroid for long enough to rule out an Earth impact in 2032, it was left with a 4% chance of impacting the Moon. 

The orbits of Earth and 2024 YR4 line up every four years, and so we must now wait until mid-2028 for astronomers to continue studying its trajectory. When the asteroid returns into view, they will be able to confirm, or much more likely, rule out a lunar impact in 2032. 

The yellow area represents the region where the brightness of the Sun makes it impossible to observe an asteroid. The blue area represents the region in which it is possible to observe an asteroid. The black area represents the region in which an asteroid is too faint to observe. The exact shape and size of these areas depends on the telescope being used. The regions shown here are representative of a generic, powerful, Earth-based, optical telescope. The red line indicates the trajectory of asteroid 2024 YR4 during three encounters with Earth in 2024, 2028 and 2032. 

The animation was created using the Synodic Orbit Visualisation Tool developed by ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre. The tool allows users to visualise the orbits of near-Earth objects (NEOs) in a rotating reference frame that keeps a line connecting Earth and the Sun fixed in place. The primary purpose of the tool is to help users determine when and how an NEO will be visible from Earth. 

The Tango Scout mission comprises two 25-kg satellites orbiting in tandem. One of the satellites will measure methane and carbon dioxide, and one will measure nitrogen dioxide. Tango will monitor 150–300 known large industrial facilities and power plants every four days, delivering high-resolution images of emission plumes as well as the surrounding pollution.
Part of ESA’s FutureEO programme, the Scout missions complement the Earth Explorer missions. However, this family of missions embraces the New Space era. Defined by rapid development and low-cost, each Scout mission must be delivered within three years from kick-off to launch and within a budget of just €35 million.

While satellites have revolutionised our ability to measure sea level with remarkable precision, their data becomes less reliable near coasts – where accurate information is most urgently needed. To address this critical gap, ESA’s Climate Change Initiative Sea Level Project research team has reprocessed almost two decades of satellite data to establish a pioneering network of ‘virtual’ coastal stations. These stations now provide, for the first time, reliable and consistent sea-level measurements along coastlines.

Read full story: First sea-level records for coastal community protection 

Since 2025, Solar Orbiter is the first Sun-watching spacecraft to ever get a clear look at the Sun's poles. It discovered that at the south pole, the Sun’s magnetic field is currently a mess.  

This image shows a magnetic field map from Solar Orbiter's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument, centred on the Sun's south pole. Blue indicates positive magnetic field, pointing towards the spacecraft, and red indicates negative magnetic field.  

There are clear blue and red patches visible right up to the Sun's south pole, indicating that there are different magnetic polarities present (north and south). This happens only for a short time during each solar cycle, at solar maximum, when the Sun’s magnetic field flips and is at its most active. After the field flip, a single magnetic polarity should slowly build up and take over the Sun’s poles.  

Solar Orbiter will be watching the Sun throughout its calming-down phase. In 5–6 years from now, the Sun will reach its next solar minimum, during which its magnetic field is at its most orderly and the Sun has the lowest levels of activity.  

Read the full story

Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. Solar Orbiter's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument is led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Germany.  

[Image description: This image shows a magnetic map of the Sun's south pole filled with small red and blue dots scattered across a pale-yellow background. The red and blue colours represent opposite magnetic polarities on the Sun. A set of lines – indicating solar longitude – radiate outward from Sun's south pole near the centre of the image, like spokes on a wheel, dividing the circle into sections.]

ESA’s state-of-the-art Biomass satellite launched aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 29 April 2025 at 11:15 CEST (06:15 local time).

In orbit, this latest Earth Explorer mission will provide vital insights into the health and dynamics of the world’s forests, revealing how they are changing over time and, critically, enhancing our understanding of their role in the global carbon cycle. It is the first satellite to carry a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar for interferometric imaging. Thanks to the long wavelength of P-band, around 70 cm, the radar signal can slice through the whole forest layer to measure the ‘biomass’, meaning the woody trunks, branches and stems, which is where trees store most of their carbon.

Vega-C is the evolution of the Vega family of rockets and delivers increased performance, greater payload volume and improved competitiveness.

Access the related broadcast quality video material.

ESA’s state-of-the-art Biomass satellite launched aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 29 April 2025 at 11:15 CEST (06:15 local time).

In orbit, this latest Earth Explorer mission will provide vital insights into the health and dynamics of the world’s forests, revealing how they are changing over time and, critically, enhancing our understanding of their role in the global carbon cycle. It is the first satellite to carry a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar for interferometric imaging. Thanks to the long wavelength of P-band, around 70 cm, the radar signal can slice through the whole forest layer to measure the ‘biomass’, meaning the woody trunks, branches and stems, which is where trees store most of their carbon.

Vega-C is the evolution of the Vega family of rockets and delivers increased performance, greater payload volume and improved competitiveness.

Access the related broadcast quality video material.

ESA’s state-of-the-art Biomass satellite launched aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 29 April 2025 at 11:15 CEST (06:15 local time).

In orbit, this latest Earth Explorer mission will provide vital insights into the health and dynamics of the world’s forests, revealing how they are changing over time and, critically, enhancing our understanding of their role in the global carbon cycle. It is the first satellite to carry a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar for interferometric imaging. Thanks to the long wavelength of P-band, around 70 cm, the radar signal can slice through the whole forest layer to measure the ‘biomass’, meaning the woody trunks, branches and stems, which is where trees store most of their carbon.

Vega-C is the evolution of the Vega family of rockets and delivers increased performance, greater payload volume and improved competitiveness.

Access the related broadcast quality video material.

A view from the launch pad with Vega-C flight VV26 ready for liftoff as the mobile building that surrounds the rocket rolls away to reveal the rocket to the skies, 29 April 2025. On the rocket is ESA’s Biomass mission.

The mobile building allows Vega-C’s four stages to be assembled on the launch pad in security and offers protection from the elements. The 50-metre high structure weighs over 1000 tonnes, and a hydraulic system drives wheels on an 80-m rail track. The gantry is powered by two electric motors of some 70 kW capacity, these operate the hydraulic pumps supplying pressurised oil to six wheels.

Biomass is one of ESA’s Earth Explorer missions and, like other Earth Explorers, it uses advanced space technology to provide new data. Biomass will advance our understanding of forests and their importance in the carbon cycle and climate.

We already know that forests play a vital role in Earth’s carbon cycle by absorbing and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide. This helps to regulate the planet’s temperature. Data from Biomass will help us produce more accurate estimates of how much carbon is contained in forests' organic matter, or biomass, and reduce uncertainties in carbon stock and flux estimates, including those related to land-use change, forest loss, and regrowth.