In the past decade, the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has revealed the nature, history, and behaviour of billions of stars. Our pioneering stargazer has reshaped our view of the skies around us like no other, revealing that star clusters are more connected than expected over vast distances.

This video shows a timelapse of the launch preparations for Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite, which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission. MetOp-SG-A1 was launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from the European spaceport in French Guiana, on 13 August at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time).

MetOp-SG-A1 is the first in a series of three successive pairs of satellites. The mission as a whole not only ensures the continued delivery of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years, but also offers enhanced accuracy and resolution

Over the summer, the European Space Agency ran an optical communication demonstration campaign using two observatories on Earth and NASA’s Psyche mission. All four optical links were successful.

Developers of large satellite constellations say it may be impossible to meet brightness goals established by astronomers to minimize the impact of those satellites on their constellations.

Belgian satellite maker Aerospacelab has secured $110 million to expand manufacturing capacity and bolster its bid for a role in IRIS², Europe’s planned sovereign multi-orbit broadband constellation.