Video: 00:03:47 They say it takes a village to raise a child. To launch a rocket, we have the combined expertise and passion of Space Team Europe. Aline Decadi is one of many making the first Ariane 6 launch possible and has been interviewed as part of a series highlighting some of the people that make up this dream team. Working for ESA, Aline Decadi is Launch System Dependability and Safety Lead engineer on Ariane 6 meaning her role is to predict what could go wrong at any moment to protect the people working at Europe’s Spaceport. Passionate about space with an international career in spac ..read more

Teams at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, are currently engaged in intensive preparations for the critical ‘Launch and Early Orbit’ phase of the agency's EarthCARE satellite ..read more

Video: 00:04:54 As we approach the launch of ESA’s EarthCARE mission, we caught up with some of the scientists, engineers and experts behind the mission. With the climate crisis increasingly tightening its grip, ESA’s Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer mission (EarthCARE) will shed new light on the complex interactions between clouds, aerosols and radiation in Earth’s atmosphere. EarthCARE is the largest and most complex Earth Explorer mission. It comes at a critical time in the development of kilometre-scale resolution, global climate models and will provide an important contribution ..read more

Week in images: 29 April - 03 May 2024 Discover our week through the lens ..read more

Image: This image may resemble the surface of Mars, but it was actually captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, revealing the stunning terrain of northwest Namibia ..read more

ESA is committed to almost halve its greenhouse gas emissions linked to energy consumption by 2025 compared to 2019 levels. But how can ESA keep accelerating the use of space for the sustainable development of society while reducing its emissions ..read more

A few weeks ago, a team of engineers carefully extracted ESA's EarthCARE satellite from its protective transport container, initiating a meticulous process of inspection, testing and preparation for its liftoff later this month from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Amidst an extensive checklist of tasks, was a rigorous effort to guarantee that the satellite is in pristine condition, underscoring the thorough attention to detail essential to making the satellite ready for launch ..read more

Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. Whether launching new satellites to look back and study Earth, peer out to deep space or test important new technologies in orbit, Ariane 6’s first flight will showcase the versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy-lift launcher. Read on for all about EXOpod Nova, then see who else is flying first ..read more

Video: 00:02:59 Last week, Ariane 6’s central core – the main body of the rocket – was stood tall at the launch zone and connected to its two solid-fuel boosters. This exciting moment means only one thing: it’s the start of the first launch campaign. The main stage and upper stage make up the core stage, and they were autonomously driven at 3 km/h from the rocket assembly building to the launch pad, 800 m away. Then lifted by a crane, the Ariane 6 core was stood upright on the launch table. The two boosters were transported to the launch pad on a specially designed truck and then configured w ..read more

Video: 00:05:16 ESA's newly graduated astronauts reach the end of one year of rigorous basic astronaut training. Discover the journey of Sophie Adenot, Rosemary Coogan, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Raphaël Liégeois, Marco Sieber, and Australian Space Agency astronaut candidate Katherine Bennell-Pegg. Selected in November 2022, the group began their training in April 2023. Basic astronaut training provides the candidates with an overall familiarisation and training in various areas, such as spacecraft systems, spacewalks, flight engineering, robotics and life support systems as well as survival an ..read more