Press Release N° 20–2026

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) have signed an Implementing Arrangement to jointly identify strategic and technological gaps in Europe’s Earth observation capabilities and develop a long-term roadmap in support of security and defence.

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.

The European-Chinese Smile mission is due to launch on Tuesday 19 May 2026, at 05:52 CEST / 04:52 BST / 00:52 local time on a European Vega-C rocket.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet has been growing since 2020 – and scientists have now identified why. Research funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) looked at factors affecting Antarctica’s delicate environmental dynamics. Despite accelerating loss of ice through glacier melt, exceptionally heavy snowfall in recent years is adding to the mass of the icy continent.

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.