Save the date: this year’s annual ESA Open Day in the Netherlands will take place on Sunday 8 October, at the Agency’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk. Registration to attend will be opened later this summer; keep an eye on this webpage and social media for further details.

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In July 2023 local time, the last Ariane 5 blasted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Relive the moment from up close in this 360° video showing the liftoff and Ariane 5 soaring to orbit.

The audio comes from the camera itself that was clamped to a steel cable on a northern ramp surrounding the Ariane 5 flame trench – about 50 m from the ZL3 launchpad. Despite being so close the camera was only protected against the humidity and rain in French Guiana. A solar panel provided extra power to the camera as it had to

Baltimore MD (SPX) Aug 04, 2023
A new image of the galaxy cluster known as "El Gordo" is revealing distant and dusty objects never seen before, and providing a bounty of fresh science. The infrared image, taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, displays a variety of unusual, distorted background galaxies that were only hinted at in previous Hubble Space Telescope images. El Gordo is a cluster of hundreds of galaxies

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Aug 06, 2023
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is looking into ways to make space propulsion systems more cost-effective and reusable. The emphasis of their investigation lies in the 3D Printing for Low-Cost Space Components (3D-LoCoS) project. This project seeks to enhance the techniques of metal-based additive manufacturing, essentially 3D printing processes. This advancement will allow for the swifter, mo

Manchester UK (SPX) Aug 04, 2023
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has released exquisite new visuals of the famed Ring Nebula, or Messier 57, to the world. The unveiling was done by a global consortium of astronomers, a team steered by Professor Mike Barlow of UCL, UK, Dr Nick Cox of ACRI-ST, France, and with contributions from Professor Albert Zijlstra of The University of Manchester. The Ring Nebula, a luminous

East Lansing MI (SPX) Aug 04, 2023
Sometimes, the best place to hide a secret is in broad daylight. Just ask the sun. "The sun is more surprising than we knew," said Mehr Un Nisa, a postdoctoral research associate at Michigan State University. "We thought we had this star figured out, but that's not the case." Nisa, who will soon be joining MSU's faculty, is the corresponding author of a new paper in the journal Physi

Birmingham UK (SPX) Aug 04, 2023
An international team of scientists have discovered an unusual Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a low-mass star called TOI-4860, located in the Corvus constellation. The newly discovered gas giant, named TOI-4860 b, is an unusual planet for two reasons: stars of such low mass are not expected to host planets like Jupiter, and the planet appears to be particularly enriched by heavy elements.

Tempe AZ (SPX) Aug 04, 2023
NASA's LunaH-Map (Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper) mission, a briefcase-sized lunar orbiter that launched as a ride share on NASA's Artemis I mission last year, has ceased operations after successfully demonstrating its neutron spectrometer can detect water and ice at the lunar surface. The LunaH-Map CubeSat was designed to map ice deposits across the Moon's South Pole as part of NASA's SIMPLE

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 04, 2023
Atmospheric temperature is a meteorological variable of daily concern to humans. Temperature also has a major impact on Perseverance mission operations (e.g. temperature sensors are distributed throughout the rover to monitor its thermal performance). In addition, temperature data are key to the mission's scientific investigations of the atmosphere. The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 04, 2023
Earth planning date: Wednesday, August 2, 2023: We don't have a lot of power to play with today, so we have to be careful about how much time we give the different activities. As Arm Rover Planner, I got to sequence the contact science activities today. We start this two-sol plan with a nap to save up power. After waking up in the afternoon, we do a short block of imaging. Mastcam is takin