The NASA-led Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch on 30 August 2026 at 07:26 EDT / 12:26 BST / 13:26 CEST from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

With its wide field of view and advanced optical design, the Roman telescope will conduct detailed scans of the sky in visible to near-infrared light. In doing so, Roman will help reveal the nature of dark energy and dark matter and find new exoplanets.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are an invisible backbone for everyday life. They are essential for transportation, emergency response and public safety. They are also vulnerable to interference, both natural and human made.

As our dependence on GNSS grows, the European Space Agency (ESA) is working hard to ensure satellite navigation systems are resilient and is supporting companies and Member States in finding new ways to detect interference.

The next Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I2) is set for liftoff on flight VA270 on an Ariane 6, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. It will complete the first family of MTG satellites, which will deliver data for weather forecasting over Europe and northern Africa in unprecedented detail. The launch will be broadcast on Thursday, 27 August, on ESA WebTV.

After a successful EVA-97 on Tuesday 18 August, watch ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot venture into the vacuum of space for the second time on Tuesday 25 August, during EVA-98.

Week in images: 17-21 August 2026

Discover our week through the lens

Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission has captured a dramatic change at Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland, where a 76 sq km section of the glacier’s floating ice tongue broke away on 4 August 2026.

The event marks the glacier’s largest loss of floating ice since 2012 and the most significant calving event in the Arctic since 2020 – revealing once again how rapidly Earth’s polar landscapes can change.

Europe’s newest eye on the health of Earth’s vegetation has taken another crucial step towards orbit – the European Space Agency’s FLEX satellite has been fuelled at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana ahead of its planned launch on 15 September at 03:21 CEST (14 September at 22:21 local time).

On Wednesday 19 August, media representatives were invited to a media briefing ahead of the launch of the next Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I2). The satellite is set to be launched on an Ariane 6 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, on 27 August. 

MTG-I2 is the third satellite for MTG, completing the MTG constellation. Together the satellites will produce images for weather forecasting in Europe in unprecedented detail. This mission provides new data products and capabilities for European weather services, especially suited to nowcasting of severe weather events.

The MTG-Imager satellites carry two instruments, a Lightning Imager