The European Space Agency (ESA) has expanded its capability to communicate with scientific, exploration and space safety missions across our Solar System with the inauguration of a new 35-m diameter deep space antenna – the fourth for Estrack, ESA’s deep space tracking network.

Week in images: 29 September - 3 October 2025

Discover our week through the lens

The intricate mechanisms of the most sophisticated laboratory on Mars are revealed in Episode 4 of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin series, called “Sample processing.” 

The Rosalind Franklin rover’s drill has a maximum reach of two metres – deeper than any other mission has ever attempted on the Red Planet. This depth allows access to well-preserved organic material from four billion years ago, when conditions on the surface of Mars were more like those on infant Earth. 

After receiving a sample from the drill, Rosalind’s laboratory must prepare the sample to make a detailed study of its mineral and chemical

2025 marks a landmark year for Europe’s ‘bridge between Earth and space’. The European Space Agency’s Estrack satellite tracking network turns 50.

Since its inception in 1975, Estrack – ESA’s global network of ground stations – has formed the vital communication bridge between satellites in orbit and mission control at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.

Now comprising six stations spanning six countries, Estrack has grown into a strategic asset for Europe, enabling communication with spacecraft, transmitting commands and receiving scientific data.

The network keeps an eye on satellites no matter their location: tracking them across Earth

Galileo relies on ground-based uplink stations (ULS) to maintain accurate positioning for users worldwide. These stations transmit essential data to the satellites, including the information required to compute the satellites' orbits and clock corrections. Traditionally, such messages are sent using dish antennas. However, a new type of ground uplink antenna – a phased array antenna – was recently tested at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) site in Redu, Belgium. Developed under ESA's Horizon 2020 programme for R&D, which aims to keep Galileo up to date with the latest innovations, this innovative antenna could benefit

ESA’s Mars Express takes us on another mesmerising flight over curving channels carved by water, islands that have resisted erosion, and a maze of hilly terrain.

Central to the tour is a 1300 km-long outflow channel called Shalbatana Vallis. It cascades down from the highland region of Xanthe Terra to the smoother lowlands of Chryse Planitia.

Billions of years ago, water surged through this channel, creating many of the features we see today.

The tour culminates in a spectacular view of a 100 km-wide impact crater, smashed out of Mars’s surface when it collided with a space rock.

Enjoy the flight, and be