ESA is preparing the second targeted atmospheric reentry of its long-running Cluster mission, with the spacecraft Rumba expected to descend into Earth’s atmosphere over a remote region of the South Pacific Ocean on October 22, 2025. The maneuver will follow the first controlled reentry of Salsa in September 2024 and continues ESA’s program to end the 24-year mission through precise, safe disposal of each satellite.
The newly launched Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) mission will advance our understanding of how gravity affects the passage of time. By comparing highly accurate clocks aboard the International Space Station with those on Earth, ACES aims to test key concepts in Einstein’s theory of relativity and explore fundamental physics.
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2024 YR4 has activated global planetary defense protocols after initial observations indicated a small but notable chance of impact in seven years. International monitoring networks have begun refining its trajectory, while space agencies evaluate potential response strategies, including possible deflection measures.
After 24 years of studying Earth’s magnetosphere, the ESA’s Salsa satellite from the Cluster mission is on course to reenter the atmosphere in a controlled descent. The reentry, scheduled for 18:48 UTC, on September 8, 2024, is part of a broader effort by the ESA to mitigate space debris risks by ensuring the satellite disintegrates safely over the South Pacific.
The European Space Agency’s JUICE mission successfully completed the world’s first lunar-Earth flyby on August 20, 2024, a vital maneuver that used the gravitational forces of the Moon and Earth to send the spacecraft toward Venus. This accomplishment is critical for saving fuel and modifying the spacecraft’s trajectory as it travels to Jupiter.
ESA's Rosetta mission has revealed that its target comet, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, has its own far-ultraviolet aurora. This is the first time such electromagnetic emissions in the far-ultraviolet have been detected on a celestial object, aside from any…
ESA's Cluster mission, launched in June 2000, was designed to study the Earth's magnetosphere, which protects the planet from impacts by cosmic particles but also interacts with them, generating spectacular phenomena like auroras. As the mission enters its…
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced its new mission — Comet Interceptor — is expected to launch in 2028. The mission aims to investigate a "pristine" comet or other interstellar object that is only just starting its journey into the inner Solar…
20 years after inception, 6 years of construction and more than a year of testing, ESA's new Sun-exploring spacecraft was successfully launched by the US Atlas V 411 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 04:04 UTC on…
Solar Orbiter — a joint NASA/ESA mission will launch from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral at 04:30 UTC on February 6 (23:30 EST, February 5). The spacecraft will provide the first views of the Sun's unexplored polar regions from high-latitudes, giving…
