ESA’s Living Planet Symposium, one of the world’s leading Earth observation conferences, opened today in Vienna.

For any space mission to launch, thousands of hours must have been spent iterating new technologies to make the spacecraft fly. The Biomass satellite, which today shared its first science data, is no exception. The probe, which carries just a single instrument on board, will perform a five-year census of all the trees on Earth to teach us more about how climate change and pests are affecting the world’s forests than we’ve ever learnt before.

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Space is huge and essential to humankind, fuelling knowledge, supporting our economies and driving global prosperity. None of this would be possible without reliable access to space. 

Since 1979, Europe has relied on the Ariane rockets and Vega series to launch its missions. Today, with Ariane 6 and Vega-C, ESA ensures Europe's autonomous and independent access to space. But we are also looking ahead. With the Ariane Smart Transfer and Release In-orbit Ship (ASTRIS), Phoebus, P160C boosters, the MR-10 engine and more, ESA is enhancing its rockets with new innovations that improve cost, performance, capability and sustainability.

ESA is also

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jun 23, 2025
DLR and NASA have signed a renewed agreement to strengthen their collaborative efforts in space medicine, with a particular emphasis on radiation research. The announcement came during the Paris Air Show on 16 June 2025, underscoring the growing need to understand and mitigate radiation risks for astronauts on deep space missions. A central element of this partnership is the deployment of

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 23, 2025
New research led by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) reveals that lunar dust is considerably less toxic to human lung cells than typical Earth-based air pollution. This finding offers reassurance for NASA's Artemis missions, which aim to establish a sustained human presence on the moon. The study, published in Life Sciences in Space Research, examined the effects of advanced lunar

Today, at the Living Planet Symposium, ESA revealed the first stunning images from its groundbreaking Biomass satellite mission – marking a major leap forward in our ability to understand how Earth’s forests are changing and exactly how they contribute to the global carbon cycle. But these inaugural glimpses go beyond forests. Remarkably, the satellite is already showing potential to unlock new insights into some of Earth’s most extreme environments.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2025
Solar energy has long been a cornerstone of sustainable power solutions, but many don't realize how innovations originally developed for space technology are driving breakthroughs here on Earth. Companies like a href="https://www.smartsolarenergyco.com/">https://www.smartsolarenergyco.com/ /a> are leveraging these advanced technologies to develop smarter, more efficient solar energy systems tha

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 21, 2025
As we become multi-planetary as a species, with ambitious Mars colonizing and lunar settlement efforts already well underway, we must consider how this push into space will upset one of our most enduring interpretive systems: astrology.