New structure gives ‘Portfolio Acquisition Executives’ authority over funding, requirements and integration across major space missions

ESA Impact: our story so far this year

Thanks to the success of the Arctic Weather Satellite prototype and Eumetsat’s recent greenlight to develop a full constellation of similar satellites called Sterna, the European Space Agency has awarded OHB Sweden with the contract to build 20 satellites.

This marks a major step toward better monitoring rapidly evolving weather, improving forecasts of severe events in vulnerable regions such as the Mediterranean, and closing critical data gaps over the Arctic – the fastest-warming region on Earth and a key driver of Europe’s weather systems.

China has identified a new target near-Earth asteroid for its first planetary defense kinetic test mission, which is scheduled to launch in December 2027.

NASA’s planetary science program, while spared steep cuts proposed last year, is still facing a funding shortfall that requires “strategic choices” about which missions to continue.

Comet K1, whose full name is Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), had just passed its closest approach to the Sun and was heading out of the Solar System. Though it had been intact just days before, K1 fragmented into at least four pieces while the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was watching. The odds of that happening while Hubble viewed the comet are extraordinarily miniscule.