Week in images: 31 Aug - 04 Sep 2026

Discover our week through the lens

Watch the replay of the livestream originally broadcast on 3 September as ESA/JAXA's BepiColombo mission took the first critical step towards arriving at Mercury.

After travelling through the inner Solar System together for eight years, BepiColombo's Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) will separate from the rest of the stacked spacecraft on 3 September 2026. This marks the beginning of one of the most complex planetary arrival sequences ever attempted by ESA.

Broadcast live from ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, the programme includes live views from the iconic Main Control Room, expert analysis, behind-the-scenes insights, and the

Copernicus Sentinel-3 is one of the most diverse missions for measuring and monitoring Earth’s climate systems. It captures a breadth of data about the environment and has contributed substantially to what we know about climate change over the past decade. The launch of the mission’s third satellite heralds the continuity of this vital source of knowledge.

This timelapse was published by ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot on social media with the following caption:

Day 198 orbit 3070 — Let’s make it three!

A third spacewalk in 15 days is coming up this Tuesday 1 September... This time, it will be an all-woman spacewalk, and I'm looking forward to sharing the adventure with Jessica! (It will be her seventh!) ‍ ‍
A huge thank you to the teams once again supporting us throughout this weekend of preparation.

The Sunday Morning Science series will resume very soon, I promise!

– Getting ready for EVA-98 with Anil, with Jessica and

After eight years of travelling through the inner Solar System, BepiColombo is arriving at Mercury. This page will show the latest updates throughout the mission's arrival. 

This sprawling cosmic vista and subject of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month comes from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The LMC is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way galaxy. At just 160 000 light-years away, the LMC offers a close look at highly active stellar birthsites like the nebula shown here. This nebula is named LHA 120-N44, or N44 for short, and it’s located in the constellation Dorado.

The appearance of this photogenic nebula is dominated by two features: a vast central void and a shell of dense, dusty gas. The central void is a

Recent observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a giant, evolving 10-sided atmospheric wave encircling Saturn’s south pole. This discovery marks the first time a large regular-sided jet pattern has been observed in the planet’s southern hemisphere. The feature appears remarkably similar to Saturn’s famous hexagon at its northern pole, but is also distinctly different, suggesting scientists may be witnessing a new atmospheric phenomenon develop on the iconic gas giant.

At Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, preparations for one of the year’s most anticipated Earth-observation launches are entering their final stages.

FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C have now been enclosed within the protective fairing of their Vega-C rocket, bringing the two satellites one step closer to their shared journey into space.

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir successfully completed US EVA-99 at 21:29 CEST on Tuesday 1 September. It was Sophie’s third spacewalk, and the 33rd conducted by a European astronaut.   

The Cluster mission danced its final dance as Tango reentered the atmosphere on 1 September, at 23:30:31 CEST. The end of the Cluster mission in 2024 turned into the start of the reentry data collection campaign. After four ‘targeted’ reentries, this is now a proven method of safe end-of-life disposal. It also enabled the repeated observation of the reentries by a plane full of scientists, creating a unique reentry data set that will improve our understanding of the destructive process and can inform the design of safer and more sustainable satellites in the future.