ESA Archives

Ariane 6, Europe’s long-awaited launch vehicle, makes maiden flight

Ariane 6, the launch vehicle designed to ensure the European Space Agency’s access to orbit, flew from French Guiana on Tuesday, ending four years of delays with triumph.

Final flight of NASA’s remarkable Mars helicopter ends with rotor damage

NASA's twin-rotor Ingenuity helicopter was designed for five missions over Mars. It lasted for 72 before a frayed rotor blade grounded the machine. Credit NASA

Rotor damage suffered during a routine Jan. 18 flight grounded the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, after three years exceeding expectations and setting milestones for powered flight on another planet alongside the Perseverance rover, ending the aircraft’s remarkable mission, NASA announced Thursday.

ESA’s Euclid Telescope reveals first images of the stars

The Horsehead nebula as seen by ESA's Euclid spacecraft. Credit: ESA.

The European Space Agency released an initial batch of full-color images from its Euclid space telescope, showing the capability of the spacecraft’s 600-megapixel camera, which will be used on Euclid’s planned six-year mission to measure the accelerating expansion of the universe.

ESA: satellite finds young trees better at consuming atmospheric carbon

In a discovery that upends conventional wisdom, the European Space Agency revealed a study Thursday that shows old-growth forests are outclassed by younger trees when it comes to capturing carbon from the atmosphere.

OSIRIS-REx delivers asteroid sample after seven years in space

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned a sample from the asteroid Bennu, which could help scientists better understand the formation of the solar system. After more than a decade of planning and seven years of space flight traversing more than 1 billion miles, a sample from the asteroid Bennu safely landed on Earth.

India P.M. calls safe landing of lunar probe ‘Dawn of a New Era’

Space workers celebrate lunar landing of the India's Chandrayaan-3 probe, making it the 4th nation to safely land a spacecraft on the Moon.

Space workers in India celebrated the landing of their Chandrayaan-3 probe, making it the fourth nation to safely land a spacecraft on the Moon, and had their efforts lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “India is on the Moon,” Modi boomed in a broadcast to India’s 1.4 billion residents.

ESA scientists: diamonds in the sky could signal early Supernova

There may be diamonds in the sky. The James Webb Space Telescope’s spectrometry gear identified carbon molecules in dust that formed during the universe’s infancy, but debate rages over just what they could be, the European Space Agency said in July.

Spain signs up as 25th nation in Artemis pact

Officials from NASA and the U.S. State Department gathered in Madrid Tuesday as Science and Innovation Minister Diana Morant signed off for Spanish agreement to the Artemis Accords, marking the 25th nation to join the U.S.-led treaty to govern conduct in orbit and beyond.

ESA Sending Heroic, Fictional Sheep Aboard Artemis I

NASA says its Artemis I flight set to launch as soon as late August will be an uncrewed lunar fly-by. The Paris-based European Space Agency would beg to differ. Shaun is leaving the happy confines of Mossy Bottom Farm to lead the flight around the Moon, an agency press release announced.