Latest European Space Agency Stories

ESA Since Europe’s Columbus laboratory module was attached to the International Space Station five years ago, it has offered researchers worldwide the opportunity to conduct science beyond the effects of gravity. A total of 110 ESA-led experiments involving some 500 scientists have been conducted since 2008, spanning fluid physics, material sciences, radiation physics, the Sun, the human body, biology and astrobiology. The Space Station allows researchers to play with a force that...

ESA [ Watch The Video ] The French Spot satellites have been charting the world’s vegetation since 1998. This important task soon falls to ESA’s Proba-V, which, despite being only a little larger than a washing machine, will provide sharp views of Earth’s plant life every two days. Keeping a close check on the health of vegetation is not only essential for monitoring environmental change, but also for numerous practical applications – importantly, those related to agriculture...

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 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 [ Watch The Video ] The first Ariane 5 heavy-lift mission of the year has delivered the Azerspace/Africasat-1a and Amazonas-3 telecom satellites into their planned transfer orbits. Liftoff of flight VA212 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana came at 21:36 GMT (22:36 CET; 18:36 French Guiana) right at the opening of the launch window. The target injection orbit had a perigee altitude of 246.9 km, an apogee altitude of 35 895 km with an inclination of 6°. Both satellites...

PARIS, February 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) and Arianespace today announced the signature of a long-term multiple launch services agreement which guarantees launch capacity and flexibility to Eutelsat for its industry-leading expansion programme. The agreement covers up to four launches in the 2016 and 2017 timeframe, with the assignment of each satellite to a launch vehicle to be made at a later stage. The new...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online [ Watch the Video: Light echoes from LRLL 54361 ] A strange beacon of light has been captured, for the third time, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Far away, on a protostar called LRLL 54361, a flashing light takes place every 25.34 days, like fireworks. New images and video released by NASA and taken by the Hubble show the cause of these fireworks can bee seen hidden behind a dense disc and an envelope of dust....

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online While solar wind is a common occurrence in our Solar System, a study of a new, more fierce wind has been completed using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space observatory. These massive stellar winds derive from rare, giant stars which burn their nuclear fuel more rapidly than stars like the Sun, and that live for millions of years before exploding into a supernova. Massive stars lose a significant fraction of their mass...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online An international group of scientists, led by Panayotis Lavvas of the University of Reims, Champagne-Ardenne, used data from NASA's Cassini mission to describe, in unparalleled detail, how aerosols in the highest part of the atmosphere are kick-started on Saturn's moon Titan. The study, published in a recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), seeks to understand aerosol formation at Titan because it could...