ESA Top Multimedia

Spinning Ariane 6 rocket showing four boosters it can use to rocket to space.

Ariane 6 is a three-stage launch vehicle with the boosters, main stage and then upper stage expending their propellant to reach orbit. The number of boosters and length of the tip of the rocket, called the fairing, can be adapted per mission.

Ariane 6 in its four-booster configuration doubles the rocket’s performance compared to the two-booster version that flew first in 2024. The P120C boosters used by Ariane 6 are one of the most powerful one-piece motors in production in the world. Flying with four boosters takes Ariane 6 to a whole new class of rockets. With the extra thrust from two more boosters Ariane 6 can take around 21.6 tonnes to low Earth orbit, more than double the 10.3 tonnes it could bring to orbit with just two boosters. 

Technicians prepare Ariane 6 for flight VA267

Dark rings and new light

A dentist at ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) in the UK controlling a robotic arm at the University of Glasgow’s SCENE facility at Loch Lomond.

This animation uses data from the MTG-Sounder satellite’s Infrared Sounder instrument. It tracks the eruption of Ethiopia's Hayli Gubbi volcano on 23 November 2025.

The background imagery shows surface temperature changes while infrared channels highlight the developing ash plume. The satellite's timely observations enable tracking of the evolving ash plume over time.

ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski captured these stunning timelapse videos during his 20-day stay aboard the International Space Station as part of Axiom Mission 4, known as Ignis. Filmed from the Cupola – the Space Station’s iconic seven-windowed observation module – the footage showcases breathtaking views of Earth and the Moon from orbit.

Launched on 25 June 2025 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, Sławosz conducted 13 experiments proposed by Polish institutions in collaboration with ESA, plus three ESA-led investigations. These spanned human research, materials science, biology, biotechnology and technology demonstrations.

The Ax-4 mission marks the second commercial human spaceflight for an ESA project astronaut. Ignis was sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT) and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA).   

Access the related broadcast quality footage. 

Solar Orbiter’s most detailed view yet of a large solar flare, observed during its 30 September 2024 close approach to the Sun. 

The imagery was published in 2025, but now scientists have focused in on the details to uncover an exciting and surprising result: individual solar flares are triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become more violent – much like an avalanche on a snowy mountain. This rapidly evolving process creates a ‘sky’ of raining plasma blobs that continue to fall even after the flare subsides.

For the first time, this process is revealed in the video shown here, along with the supplementary videos featured in the full story.

When Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) first started observing the region at about 23:06 Universal Time (UT), a dark arch-like ‘filament’ of twisted magnetic fields and plasma was already present, connected to a cross-shaped structure of progressively brightening magnetic field lines.

Zooming in to this feature shows that new magnetic field strands are appearing in every image frame – equivalent to every two seconds or less. Each strand is magnetically contained, and they become twisted, like ropes. Then, just like in a typical avalanche, the region becomes unstable. The twisted strands begin to break and reconnect, rapidly triggering a cascade of further destabilisations in the area. This creates progressively stronger reconnection events and outflows of energy, seen as increasing brightness in the imagery.

A sudden brightening begins at 23:29 UT, followed by the dark filament disconnecting from one side, launching into space and at the same time violently unrolling at high speed. The unwinding closest to the footprint is recorded at 250 km/s, increasing to 400 km/s at the site of disconnection. Bright sparks of reconnection are seen all along the filament in stunning high resolution as the flare erupts at 23:47 UT.

At the same time, ribbon-like features are seen moving extremely quickly down through the Sun’s atmosphere. These streams of ‘raining plasma blobs’ are signatures of energy deposition from the reconnection events, which get stronger and stronger as the flare progresses. Even after the flare subsides, the rain continues for some time.

While EUI captured this high-resolution imagery, Solar Orbiter’s SPICE and STIX instruments monitored the temperatures and particle emissions at different layers in the Sun’s atmosphere. They revealed the slow rise of ultraviolet to x-ray emission prior to the flare, followed by a dramatic increase in x-ray emission during the main phase of the flare – signifying that particles were accelerated to 40-50% the speed of light equivalent to about 431–540 million km/h. This was recorded close to the base of the filament connection point as it unfurled into space.

After the main phase of the flare, the original cross-shape of magnetic field lines relaxes and the instruments see the plasma cool down to ‘normal’ levels. Bundles of looped magnetic field lines and suspended plasma – ‘arcades’ – hang over the flare site for some time.

Read more 

Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. The EUI instrument is led by the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB).

Plato, the European Space Agency’s mission to discover Earth-like exoplanets, successfully passed a first round of tests designed to ensure that the spacecraft is fit for launch. As this video shows, the tests consist of vigorously shaking the spacecraft to mimic the powerful jolts and vibrations that Plato will experience during launch.

These so-called ‘vibration tests’, are arranged in three parts. In this clip, we see the phase when the spacecraft, mounted on a ‘quad’ shaker, is jolted up and down (Z axis). In the other two stages, on top a ‘lateral’ shaker, the spacecraft is jiggled back and forth sideways in two perpendicular directions (X and Y axes).

Each test run lasts one minute, during which the frequency of the oscillations is gradually increased from 5 to 100 oscillations per second (hertz). At the higher frequencies we can no longer perceive the movement, but we hear the spacecraft’s internal rumbling caused by the fast shaking. The sound comes in waves, becoming louder when the shaker hits resonance frequencies and makes the spacecraft vibrate more intensely.

The first couple of minutes of a satellite's spaceflight are the toughest, as it sustains the extreme vibration of lift-off. By subjecting the spacecraft with these dramatic stresses in advance of the real launch, engineers ensure that no piece of space hardware will be damaged during launch.

Plato is currently undertaking its tough exams to graduate for launch. After vibration tests, the spacecraft was placed inside ESA’s acoustic test chamber and blasted by deafening sound similar to what it will experience during lift-off. Also this test went as expected.

Next, engineers will move the spacecraft to the Large Space Simulator – Europe’s largest vacuum chamber – to verify that it can withstand the extreme temperatures and emptiness of space.

The mission is expected to be ready for launch by the end of the year. Lift-off on an Ariane 6 is planned in by Ariane Space for January 2027.

About Plato

ESA’s Plato (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) will use 26 cameras to study terrestrial exoplanets in orbits up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars.

Plato's scientific instrumentation, consisting of the cameras and electronic units, is provided through a collaboration between ESA and the Plato Mission Consortium composed of various European research centres, institutes and industries. The spacecraft is being built and assembled by the industrial Plato Core Team led by OHB together with Thales Alenia Space and Beyond Gravity.

Media representatives joined French ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, on Monday 5 January, for a hybrid press conference to learn more about her first mission to space.

This event, held at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Germany, was the final media event in Europe ahead of her launch to the International Space Station.

Sophie selected the name ‘εpsilon’ for her first mission, currently planned no earlier than 15 February, reflecting the power of small, yet impactful contributions, and how many parts come together to make a whole.

During εpsilon, Sophie will conduct a wide range of tasks on the International Space Station, including European-led scientific experiments, medical research, supporting Earth observation and contributing to operations and maintenance on the Station.