An innovative new rocket engine that is key to ESA’s strategy for ensuring Europe’s independent access to space has successfully completed its first hot-firing test run. M10 is the first of a new generation of “green” rocket motors tested in Europe, at the new SPTF plant (Space Propulsion Test Facility) built by prime contractor Avio in Sardinia.

Week in images: 02-06 May 2022

Discover our week through the lens

Video: 00:01:41

The Crew Dragon capsule carrying ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron home from the International Space Station splashed down off the coast of Florida, USA, on Friday 6 May 2022 at 05:43 BST/06:43 CEST.

Its return marks the end of Crew-3’s almost six-month stay in orbit and the end of Matthias’s first mission, known as Cosmic Kiss.

Crew-3 undocked from the International Space Station in Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance at 06:20 BST/07:20 CEST Thursday 5 May. When a Crew capsule splashes down, it is met by nearby ships with experts ready

Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 05, 2022
Why does Earth support life, while Venus and Mars - and for all we know, any other planet in the universe - do not? "It's one of the most fundamental questions in all of science: Why are we here? And it's what Endurance is after," said Glyn Collinson, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and principal investigator for NASA's Endurance mission.

Image:

The Crew Dragon capsule carrying ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron home from the International Space Station splashed down off the coast of Florida, USA, on Friday 6 May.

Its return marks the end of Crew-3’s almost six-month stay in orbit and the end of Matthias’s first mission, known as Cosmic Kiss. 

Crew-3 undocked from the International Space Station in Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance at 06:20 BST/07:20 CEST Thursday 5 May.

When a Crew capsule splashes down, it is met by nearby ships with experts ready to bring it on board, open the hatch,

The Rhine River, the longest river in Germany, is featured in this colourful image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. Along this river lies the city of Bonn: the host of this year’s Living Planet Symposium – one of the largest Earth observation conferences in the world – taking place on 23–27 May 2022.

Video: 00:02:28

The Crew Dragon capsule carrying ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron home from the International Space Station splashed down off the coast of Florida, USA, on Friday 6 May 2022 at 05:43 BST/06:43 CEST.

Its return marks the end of Crew-3’s almost six-month stay in orbit and the end of Matthias’s first mission, known as Cosmic Kiss.

Crew-3 undocked from the International Space Station in Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance at 06:20 BST/07:20 CEST Thursday 5 May.

When a Crew capsule splashes down, it is met by nearby ships with experts ready to

Washington (AFP) May 6, 2022
NASA's Crew-3 mission returned home to Earth on Friday after six months aboard the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft with NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, undocked from the orbital laboratory a day earlier. Their 23.5 hour journey back saw them splash down off the coas

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer is safely back on Earth after splashing down off the coast of Florida, USA, at 05:43 BST/06:43 CEST today alongside NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron in Crew Dragon capsule Endurance.