• Venus Express reveals new facts about Venus’ ionosphere

    On January 29, 2013, ESA revealed observations made by the spacecraft in August 2010, when it studied the effect of reduced solar wind on planet's ionosphere. Researchers found that planet’s ionosphere ballooned outward on the planet’s…

  • A day in the life of Venus

    ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft orbited at 66 000 km above the Venus south pole and captured bright and dark cloud bands wind around the poles of Venus, staring down into the south polar vortex. Venus Express has been orbiting the planet since 2006. It carries seven

  • ESA mulling over an ‘Asteroid deflection mission’, seeks ideas

    The thought of asteroid impact on Earth is intimidating – one that’s connected with catastrophic devastation in past and have always been a hot topic for fictional stories. Though space agencies are continuously watching the sky in search of potential future impact

  • LEON – microchips designed by ESA for future space missions

    In an attempt to become self-reliant, ESA designed LEON series microprocessor chips for their future space missions. Engineered to operate within spacecraft computers, withstand extreme conditions during launch and in space, manufacturing was done Atmel in France

  • First data acquired by new ESA’s deep space tracking station

    ESA’s new deep-space tracking station (DSA 3) in Malargüe, Argentina received its first image on December 18, 2012. This image was selected as the symbolic ‘first data’ to be downloaded by DSA 3 and it marked its inauguration to service.The image was captured on

  • Earth from space: River Po live!

    Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios and in the forty-seventh edition, you can look at the Po River, which flows over 650 km across northern Italy. The live transmission is scheduled for 09:00 UTC on November 14,

  • New deep-space mission tracking station nears inauguration

    ESA’s new deep-space mission tracking station is nearing inauguration in Malargüe, Argentina, 1000 km west of Buenos Aires. Deep Space Antenna 3 (DSA 3) will ensure reliable communications with missions voyaging hundreds of millions of kilometres into our Solar

  • ESA satellites observing sea ice

    As reported earlier this year, Arctic sea ice is thawing at an unprecedented rate. News is perturbing, provided that heat exchange between sea and atmosphere is largely influenced by sea ice. Thermal flux, the rate at which heat energy transfers, can change

  • ESA’s new weather satellite started sending data

    ESA’s weather satellite Metop-B in Metop series launched on 17th September is performing well in its polar orbit. ESA’s recent press release states that satellite on its way towards replacing the ageing Metop-A as prime operational satellite in polar orbit, after

  • Mars express captures possible traces of water

    ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft captured images of 120 km wide Hadley Crater which revealed there has been several subsequent impacts within the crater leading to formation of further craters, that are up to 2600 m deep than surrounding surface.  This observation has