ESA’s newest deep space antenna, DSA 4 (also called NNO-3), is now fully online – representing a powerful new addition that strengthens the Agency’s reach across the Solar System and boosts the capacity and resilience of its global Estrack network for communicating with spacecraft in deep space.

Last year, history was made as a navigation receiver on the Moon determined its position in real time using signals from approximately 410 000 km away. The receiver, called the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), acquired signals from four navigation satellites orbiting Earth: two Galileo satellites and two GPS satellites.

The mission also tested Galileo’s Emergency Warning Satellite Service (EWSS) on the Moon, demonstrating the robustness and reach of the planned service.

An international research team boarded ESA’s 86th parabolic flight campaign in May 2025 with ultralight graphene aerogels, then hit them with light during zero gravity phases to observe their reaction under space-like conditions.  

Inside a vacuum chamber, a continuous laser beamed on three small cubes made of graphene aerogel. A high-speed camera recorded the action through glass tubes. This video has been slowed down 10 times; each experiment run lasted 30 milliseconds. 

The effect of the laser during the microgravity phases was startling: the graphene samples shot forward instantly. Another finding was the ability to control the propulsion by tuning the light beam. The stronger the laser,