On 25 March, the first two satellites of the Celeste in-orbit demonstration mission will lift off aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Māhia Launch Complex in New Zealand.

Celeste will play a pioneering role in elevating the future of Europe’s satellite navigation capabilities.

As ESA’s initiative for satellite navigation in low Earth orbit (LEO-PNT), the mission will be testing next-generation technologies and add new frequency bands for satellite navigation to inform the deployment of a future European operational navigation system in low Earth orbit. 

The mission will begin with two demonstrator satellites, IOD1-2, to secure and test the

Arctic rivers and runoff from the land pour vast volumes of freshwater into the Arctic Ocean, influencing seawater salinity, sea-ice formation and ocean circulation, thereby playing an important role in regulating Earth’s heat balance.

As northern monitoring networks decline, scientists have turned to satellite data to reconstruct two decades of river discharge and runoff, revealing a striking mosaic of regional change as warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns reshape the Arctic’s hydrological system in uneven and unexpected ways.

On 25 March, the first two satellites of the Celeste LEO-PNT in-orbit demonstration mission will lift off aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Māhia Launch Complex in New Zealand.

Coverage will start 9:53 CET with live commentary. The rocket is scheduled for liftoff at 10:14, with a launch window of about an hour.

Two lunar lander companies say they’re ready to meet NASA’s plans for a major increase in the cadence of landings but offered few details about how they would do so.

No matter how much planning goes into space missions, one must always expect the unexpected. But luck favours the prepared. In July 2025, an unexpected visitor entered our Solar System, interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – Juice – happened to be in the right place, with the right equipment, at the right time to see it. 

This unique vantage point offered a fleeting opportunity. What followed was a race against time. 

Swissto12, the Switzerland-based small geostationary satellite specialist, has signed a contract to build the first optical relay spacecraft using its washing machine-sized HummingSat platform.

Nearly 140 million euros ($162 million) that European Space Agency member states allocated to a program to support launch vehicle development remains in limbo and could be lost.