Our planet is being continuously bathed in radio signals from satnav satellites – which are useful for much more than just navigation. Dedicated space missions acquire these signal reflections to amass valuable environmental information. The shoebox-sized PRETTY CubeSat, flying on Europe’s next Vega launcher, will investigate a new frequency and novel observation angle to better measure the rate of climate change – at the same time as gathering radiation data on its surrounding space environment.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his and our control, ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter has had to cancel his attendance at the ESA Open Day at ESTEC this Sunday. ESA astronaut André Kuipers and Reserve astronaut John McFall will still be attending.