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Sensitive and sturdy
Location of star-forming region in M51
Location of star-forming region in M51Special Announcement: Lunar Gravity Campaign in Spring 2027
The 91st ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign in May 2027 will be entirely dedicated to lunar gravity.
Scientific research proposals are welcome on this application channel.
Technology research proposals are welcome on this application channel.
ESA has particular interest in several key topics, please see the descriptions at the links above.
The application deadline is 15 June 2026.
New dawn, new possibilities... 16 times a day!
This picture was published on social media by ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot with the following caption:
Day 080, orbit 1241 — New dawn, new possibilities… 16 times a day! From orbit, just like on Earth, each sunrise and sunset is a quiet reminder of how dynamic and beautiful our planet is. At sunrise, the deep black of night gives way to fiery reds, warm oranges and the thin blue line of our atmosphere.
No two sunrises are ever the same, depending on the clouds, their shapes, and whether we’re flying over ocean or land… I can’t help but think of the way Monet or Van Gogh studied light… how much they would have loved this view!
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Jour 080, orbite 1241 — Nouvelle aube, nouvelles perspectives… 16 fois par jour ! Depuis l’orbite, comme c’est aussi le cas sur Terre, chaque lever et coucher de Soleil rappelle combien notre planète est belle et dynamique. À l’aube, le noir profond de la nuit laisse place à des rouges flamboyants, des oranges chaleureux, et à la fine ligne bleue de notre atmosphère.
Aucun lever de Soleil ne se ressemble vraiment : tout dépend de la couverture nuageuse, de la forme des nuages, et du fait que l’on survole les océans ou les continents… Impossible de ne pas penser à la manière dont Monet ou Van Gogh ont étudié la lumière… qu’ils auraient adoré cette vue !
ESA XR Conference 2026
Every two years, the ESA XR Conference brings together professionals and experts working with Extended Reality (XR) and related technologies in the space sector.
The 2026 edition took place on 17-18 March at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany.
For over two decades, the European Space Agency (ESA) has explored the potential of Extended Reality (XR) – a group of technologies encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) – to enhance its operations.
These immersive technologies bridge the digital and physical worlds, enabling more intuitive workflows, improving collaboration, reducing costs, and supporting mission planning, training, and data interpretation.
For more information about Extended Reality at ESA, visit xr.esa.int.
This Month at ESA: April 2026
What did space deliver for Europe this month? From the Moon to low Earth orbit and beyond, here’s what the European Space Agency has been up to.
Baking a parachute for Mars
Watch ESA’s Mars chief engineer Albert Haldemann explain the sterilisation process of one of the parachutes of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission and why it matters.
Carefully wrapped inside a donut-shaped bag is a 35-m diameter parachute, about to be baked inside a specialised dry-heat steriliser oven. The parachute needs to be at least 10 000 times cleaner than your smartphone.
To get rid of any microbes it might have picked up during its time on Earth, the parachute was heated up in a specialised oven at the European Space Agency’s Life Support and Physical Sciences Laboratory at ESTEC, the agency’s technical centre in the Netherlands. All air inside the cleanroom continuously passes through a two-stage filter, and everyone entering the chamber must gown up more rigorously than a surgeon before passing through an air shower to remove any contaminants.
The 74 kg parachute, made mostly of nylon and Kevlar fabrics, will endure a six-minute dive into the thin martian atmosphere and slow down the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover for a safe landing on the Red Planet. This feat will make it the largest parachute ever to fly on the Red Planet, or anywhere else in the Solar System besides Earth.
The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission will launch in 2028 and spend over 25 months travelling to the Red Planet where it will search for signs of life beneath the martian surface.
The potential existence of past and perhaps even present-day life on our closest planetary neighbour requires rigorous sterilisation, to make sure that no microbes piggyback their way there from Earth. Any terrestrial microbes hardy enough to survive the ride through space could interfere with the investigation by causing ‘forward contamination’ and triggering a false positive.
Protecting the martian environment from ourselves, in accordance with international planetary protection measures, is as important as protecting the mission itself.
Ariane 6 VA268 launch campaign
Set for 30 April, Ariane 6 is preparing for launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Mission VA268 will place 32 Amazon LEO satellites into low Earth orbit, supporting the deployment of Amazon’s global broadband constellation. This will be the second Ariane 6 flight in its four‑booster Ariane 64 configuration.
Aurora, Swing and Sawa: ESA’s Space Weather sensors
Solar activity regularly disturbs our planet, producing stunning auroras, but also endangering infrastructure in space and on the ground.
Meet the space weather sensors, Aurora, Swing and Sawa, ESA’s missions to monitor Earth’s atmosphere and study geomagnetic storms.
Think of Earth’s atmosphere as a layered cake: each layer is affected by space weather in its own way, and each mission will focus on different effects.
The Aurora mission will patrol the north and south poles, looking down on the shimmering lights that reveal the impact of space weather.
Swing will monitor the ionosphere, a layer of the atmosphere that, when disturbed, can disrupt radio signals and cause issues with satellite navigation and communication systems.
Sawa will study the thermosphere as space weather causes it to warm and expand, pushing satellites off course.
Aurora, Swing and Sawa, along with sensors onboard other satellites and on Earth’s surface, will feed data into space weather forecasts, alerts and other tools. Together, these services will help protect industries such as aviation, satellite navigation and power grids from disruption.
We cannot prevent space weather, but with the space weather sensors developed by ESA’s Space Safety programme, Europe will know when to brace for impact.
Aeolus comes home to forge a lasting lidar legacy
The islands of Aeolia, the home of Aeolus, keeper of the winds in Greek mythology, were a fitting location to explore the legacy of the European Space Agency’s trailblazing wind satellite, and the future of spaceborne Doppler wind lidars.
Aeolus was a remarkable achievement. Its ALADIN instrument used innovative laser technology and the Doppler effect to measure vertical profiles of Earth’s winds on a global scale for the very first time from space.
At the Aeolus science conference in Lipari, April 2026, we discovered the history of this pioneering feat - and how the hard work developing Aeolus has helped the development of current instruments such as EarthCARE’s atmospheric lidar (ATLID) and paved the way for the future operational EPS Aeolus/Aeolus-2 mission – a joint endeavour between ESA and EUMETSAT.
Flight and satellite tracks in Arctic campaign
As sea ice continues to succumb to the climate crisis, measuring its decline with precision has never been more urgent. To meet this challenge, the European Space Agency is developing three new Copernicus satellites, each employing distinct but complementary techniques to monitor this fragile component of the Earth system. To ensure the data from these new satellites are razor-sharp, an international team of hardy scientists is now out on the Arctic sea ice braving the cold and flying above to collect critical in situ measurements.
Through coordinated measurements on the ice and from the air, the teams are collecting critical data to improve the upcoming CIMR, CRISTAL and ROSE-L mission’s retrieval methods and help ensure these important upcoming satellites deliver accurate and reliable observations of the polar environment.
The video shows two flight tracks and several satellite tracks during the field campaign.
Read full article: Braving the Arctic for upcoming polar-focused satellites
A Saturday‑night dinner onboard the International Space Station
After an intense few weeks the crew took time to celebrate together with a shared meal proposed by ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot.
It’s a long‑standing tradition: each ESA astronaut works with a chef to create a few special dishes reserved for rare occasions — known as “bonus food”. Sophie’s bonus food was created by multi‑Michelin‑starred chef Anne‑Sophie Pic, offering the crew a taste of French gastronomy far from Earth.
Bonus food, tailored to specific crew members, makes up around one tenth of an astronaut’s menu. Astronauts say it adds variety to their meals, supports mental well‑being, and helps strengthen bonds among the crew in orbit.
Everyday operations in orbit: toilet maintenance
In this timelapse, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot performs routine maintenance on the Waste and Hygiene Compartment, or WHC – the ISS toilet system. She is replacing the full solid-waste container in which solid waste is vacuum-dried, compressed and kept airtight. This operation typically takes place once or twice a week, when the container reaches capacity.
Tidying up the Columbus module
This timelapse shows ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot tidying the European Columbus laboratory aboard the International Space Station. Keeping the Station organised is crucial for crew safety and smooth operations, ensuring that science and maintenance can continue without interruption.
Every item has its place, and as crews rotate every few months, ground teams play an important role in helping locate any item needed for an experiment or a maintenance task.
Behind the scenes: Filming in microgravity
During her free time onboard the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot records videos exploring many aspects of living and working in a microgravity environment for the εpsilon mission. This timelapse offers a real behind-the-scenes look at a filming session.
First-of-its-kind ship-to-ship call
The first‑of‑its‑kind ship‑to‑ship call between astronauts on deep‑space and low Earth orbit missions.On 7 April, the Artemis II crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, together with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, spoke with Expedition 74 astronauts Chris Williams, Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir of NASA, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot aboard the International Space Station.
Cygnus NG-23 closeout
As this timelapse shows, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir worked together readying the Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft for its detachment from the Unity module and release into Earth orbit with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.
Sophie configured hardware that enabled Cygnus XL to be disconnected from Unity, then closed the spacecraft’s hatch. Jessica set up the equipment used to depressurize Cygnus XL in advance of its departure.
The cargo vehicle was detached on 12 March 2026 from the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station’s Unity module and released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 14:06 CET.
Artemis II splashdown
Today, at 17:07 local time (Pacific) on 10 April (01:07 BST/02:07 CEST on 11 April), NASA's Orion spacecraft and its crew splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, marking the successful end of the Artemis II mission, humankind's first journey around the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
ESA's European Service Module powered the spacecraft over 1 million kilometres through in deep space, providing air and water for the astronauts, generating electrical power via its four solar arrays, maintaining thermal control and delivering propulsion.
Mostly built by European industry under ESA leadership, the European Service Module was assembled by Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen, Germany, with contributions from companies across 13 European countries, involving 20 main contractors and over 100 European suppliers.
Throughout the mission, European engineers supported operations around the clock from ESA's centres in the Netherlands and Germany, as well as alongside NASA teams in Houston, ensuring Orion and its crew completed their journey safely around the Moon and back home.
Orion Mission Evaluation Room in Houston
European Service Module mission control at ESTEC
US EVA-94 preparations
Expedition 74 crewmates and NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams conducted an EVA on 18 March to prepare the Station for the installation of another pair of iROSA solar panels.
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway supported the spacewalkers, helping them suit up and closing the hatch behind them – as this timelapse shows.
Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL): SMD PASTA experiment
This timelapse was published by ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot on her social media with the following caption:
[EN] Another experiment, and another timelapse! This time, I’m working with the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL), one of the science facilities inside ESA’s Columbus module.
The experiment is called PASTA-3 and investigates the formation and evolution of emulsions over time when there is no gravity to interfere. Emulsions are mixtures of two or more liquids that do not usually mix, such as oil and water.
During this session, I installed 3 experiment containers with new samples inside the FSL. Each PASTA sample has a different concentration of surfactant (an agent that helps liquids mix) and Xanthan Gum in addition to a water and oil mixture.
This experiment helps scientists better understand and model the fundamental physics of emulsions. That knowledge has numerous applications on Earth, including:
improving food quality and shelf life (milk, dough, mayonnaise, candy…), enhancing the stability and effectiveness of medicines (including vaccines) and cosmetics, optimising processes in industrial and advanced manufacturing sectors (oil, chemicals …).
PASTA-3 is one of the 36 European experiments I get to work on during my mission! Go science!
(PASTA is short for PArticle STAbilised emulsions experiment.)
[FR] Nouvelle expérience, et nouveau timelapse ! Cette fois-ci, cela se passe dans le Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL), l’une des installations scientifiques situées à l’intérieur du module Columbus de l’ESA.
L’expérience s’appelle PASTA 3 : elle étudie la formation et l’évolution des émulsions au fil du temps en l’absence de gravité. Une émulsion, c’est un mélange de deux ou plusieurs liquides qui ne se mélangent pas facilement, comme l’huile et l’eau.
Lors de cette session, j’ai installé trois lots de nouveaux échantillons dans le FSL. Chaque échantillon PASTA présente une concentration différente de tensioactif (un agent qui aide les liquides à se mélanger) et de gomme xanthane, en plus d’un mélange d’eau et d’huile.
Cette expérience aide les scientifiques à mieux comprendre et modéliser la physique fondamentale des émulsions avec à la clé de nombreuses applications sur Terre, comme par exemple:
l’amélioration de la qualité des aliments et de leur durée de conservation (lait, pâte, mayonnaise, confiseries…), le renforcement de la stabilité et de l’efficacité des médicaments (y compris les vaccins) et des cosmétiques, l’optimisation des procédés industriels et de fabrication avancée (pétrole, chimie…).
PASTA 3 est l’une des 36 expériences européennes sur lesquelles j’ai la chance de travailler durant ma mission ! Vive la science !
(PASTA est l’abréviation de PArticle STAbilised emulsions experiment.)
A European powerhouse
Earthset from lunar orbit
Going to the Moon
Artemis II launch
Artemis II launch
Artemis II launch
Artemis II launch
Artemis II launch
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