Tag: ESA
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Europe’s quest to finally land on Mars takes another turn
Oh, ExoMars, what a long, strange trip it has been. Are you ever going to go to space? The ExoMars mission represents Europe’s third attempt to land successfully on Mars, and at a cost of more than $1.3 billion. there is a lot riding on its success. But success is far from assured for a…
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Europe’s quest to finally land on Mars takes another turn
Oh, ExoMars, what a long, strange trip it has been. Are you ever going to go to space? The ExoMars mission represents Europe’s third attempt to land successfully on Mars, and at a cost of more than $1.3 billion. there is a lot riding on its success. But success is far from assured for a…
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Arianespace successfully launches Ariane 6’s first commercial launch following Monday scrub
An Ariane 6 rocket lifts off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on Thursday, March 6, 2025. It marked the first commercial and second overall flight for this rocket program. Image: ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE-ArianeGroup / Optique vidéo du CSG – P PIRON Update March 6, 3:20 p.m. EST (2020 UTC): Arianespace confirms mission success and CNES confirmed…
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Euclid reveals an Einstein ring around a nearby galaxy
Using the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope, astronomers have accidentally found a complete Einstein ring around a nearby galaxy known as NGC 6505. This optical effect shows a distorted image of a far-away galaxy as a ring around a separate galaxy in the foreground. NGC 6505’s proximity to Earth and the completeness of its…
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Webb investigates protoplanetary disk in extreme detail, observes glowing interstellar material
The joint NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) James Webb Space Telescope, located at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2, recently utilized its extraordinary suite of infrared instruments to investigate and image a protoplanetary disk around a newborn star. Webb’s observations provided scientists with unprecedented views of the disk, material jets, and…
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Europe has the worst imaginable idea to counter SpaceX’s launch dominance
It is not difficult to understand the unease on the European continent about the rise of SpaceX and its controversial founder, Elon Musk. SpaceX has surpassed the European Space Agency and its institutional partners in almost every way when it comes to accessing space and providing secure communications. Last year, for example, SpaceX launched 134…
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NASA’s CLPS program accelerates as two landers head for the Moon
As NASA focuses on returning humans to the Moon with Artemis, commercial providers are gearing up to deliver cargo to the lunar surface for NASA and other customers. Over a dozen uncrewed lunar missions are scheduled to be launched in the coming years, and more concepts are being developed globally. Two commercial lunar landers are…
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XMM-Newton observes black hole that exhibits strange oscillations
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope recently discovered rapidly fluctuating X-ray signals coming from the edge of supermassive black hole 1ES 1927+654. Located at the center of a nearby galaxy, the black hole’s X-ray signals have given scientists insight into its nature and how matter falls into it. Moreover, XMM-Newton’s observations also…
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As it happened: NASA announces new path options for Mars Sample Return mission
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, announced changes to the Mars Sample Return mission during a news teleconference on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Read live blog for updates from the briefing.
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Nelson: Decision on Mars Sample Return expected before new administration takes office
This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples of rocks and soil being collected from the Martian surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover.Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech One of the biggest decision points for the space community, how to redesign the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, may be weeks…