Latest ESA Stories

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online According to satellite data, the most recent hole in the ozone layer measured over Antarctica was the smallest it has been in ten years. Other long-term research studies also indicate that the Earth's ozone layer seems to be on the mend thanks to international agreements to protect this vital layer of the atmosphere. Continuing the work started by ERS-2 and Envisat satellites, imaging from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) MetOp...

ESA Wetlands play a major role in the availability and quality of water, containing most of the water used to meet human needs. ESA’s GlobWetland II project is helping Mediterranean countries to monitor these precious resources. Located within the Nile River Delta, Egypt’s Lake Burullus has undergone major changes in the past 40 years. Urban settlements have flourished around the lake, and from 1973 to 1990 the area saw a sharp increase in aquaculture. As a result of increased...

ESA Tucked away in a vacuum chamber for several months, Europe’s largest telecom satellite has faced the harsh conditions it will deal with once it is launched into space this summer. Testing at Intespace in Toulouse, France, simulated conditions close to those Alphasat will experience in flight, including the intense cold of its transfer orbits in the early stages of the mission. Not only was Alphasat’s ability to control its temperature tested, but other features were also put...

NASA There is a reason the phrase "shooting in the dark" refers to things that are difficult to do -- and night photography is no exception. To account for low-light image scenarios, a photographer needs a steady tripod, but aboard the International Space Station, a traditional tripod isn't going to cut it. Thankfully, the European Space Agency, or ESA, developed NightPod for the crew's cameras. This astronaut photograph of Liège, Belgium, at night was taken using the NightPod camera...

ESA The BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) Mechanical and Propulsion Bus (MPB) Proto-Flight Model (PFM) has been baked out in the Phenix thermal vacuum facility at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This process involved heating the MPB to 60 °C in a vacuum for 20 days to remove any contaminants that would outgas in space. Given the extremes of temperature to which BepiColombo will be exposed – in excess of 350 °C on the...

ESA Satellite radar data are being used to map Earth’s vital resources. The latest advances and applications of the POLinSAR remote sensing technique were highlighted at a conference held last week. Polarimetric InSAR – or POLinSAR – is a remote sensing technique based on polarimetric information in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. With this technique, a radar sends polarised pulses towards the target, and the information in the signals backscattered from Earth can be...

[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] | [ Video 2 ] NASA/ESA Hubble Heritage Team The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope – with a little help from an amateur astronomer – has produced one of the best views yet of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106. Located a little over 20 million light-years away, practically a neighbor by cosmic standards, Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own. Despite its appearance, which looks much like countless other galaxies, Messier...

ESA [ Watch The Video ] Living in space weakens astronauts’ immune systems, researchers have discovered. The findings are providing clues on how to tackle diseases on Earth before symptoms appear. Ever since the first humans ventured into space we have known that astronauts can suffer from common infections that would be quickly dealt with by healthy people on Earth. Until now, it was not clear what was blocking astronauts’ immune systems from working normally. In 2006, ESA...

WIXOM, Mich., Feb. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Rockwell Medical (NASDAQ: RMTI), a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company targeting end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) with innovative products and services for the treatment of iron deficiency, secondary hyperparathyroidism and hemodialysis, announced successful topline results from the PRIME clinical study of Soluble Ferric Pyrophosphate (SFP), its investigational iron-delivery drug currently in Phase 3...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Officials with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) revealed on Friday that they will be proposing Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for wolverines in the lower 48 states, various news outlets have reported. According to the New York Times, the agency’s announcement that they are looking to list the animal as a threatened species comes after they had “repeatedly” deferred such consideration. The wolverine’s...