The European Space Agency will soon select the finalists for a competition intended to support the development of new launch vehicles by European companies.

Congress approved a budget reconciliation bill that includes nearly $10 billion for NASA human spaceflight programs and could also lead to the transfer of a space shuttle to Houston.

Using data from ESA’s SMOS satellite, scientists have revealed a surprising shift in the Southern Ocean – surface waters around Antarctica are growing saltier, even as sea ice is diminishing rapidly. This finding defies the norm because melting ice typically freshens ocean surface water.

The implications are far-reaching as changes in this remote region can disrupt global ocean currents, affect climate patterns, and alter ecosystems far beyond the Antarctic.

Image: Earth from Space: Zanzibar, Tanzania

The ESS satellites are central to U.S. nuclear command, control and communications

Week in images: 30 June - 4 July 2025

Discover our week through the lens

Paris (AFP) July 2, 2025
Why is Mars barren and uninhabitable, while life has always thrived here on our relatively similar planet Earth? A discovery made by a NASA rover has offered a clue for this mystery, new research said Wednesday, suggesting that while rivers once sporadically flowed on Mars, it was doomed to mostly be a desert planet. Mars is thought to currently have all the necessary ingredients for li

Paris (AFP) July 3, 2025
Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through our Solar System - only the third ever spotted, though scientists suspect many more may slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. "It looks kind of fuzzy," Peter Veres, an astrono