ESA’s job is to draw up the European space programme and carry it through. The Agency’s projects are designed to find out more about the Earth, its immediate space environment, the solar system and the Universe, as well as to develop satellite-based technologies and services, and to promote European industries. ESA also works closely with space organisations outside Europe to share the benefits of space with the whole of mankind.

ESA and ANU make space propulsion breakthrough

12 November 2006 - European Space Agency The European Space Agency and the Australian National University have successfully tested a new design of spacecraft ion engine that dramatically improves performance over present thrusters and marks a major step forward in space propulsion capability.

Unique in-flight upgrade for XMM-Newton ground systems

11 November 2006 - European Space Agency ESA's highly successful XMM-Newton mission was formally given a four-year extension. The longer life necessitated a first-ever in-flight upgrade to the spacecraft's mission control software.

Thinking out of the box: how to challenge conventional space systems

10 November 2006 - European Space Agency Spacecraft must evolve. Advancing space research is no longer just about swapping old components for new, now it is about entirely rethinking what a space mission can do and how it achieves its goals. World experts are gathering at ESA on 21 February to exchange new ideas and stimulate unconventional thinking about space systems.

Satellite data used to warn oil industry of potentially dangerous eddy

09 November 2006 - European Space Agency Ocean FOCUS began issuing forecasts, just in time to warn oil production operators of a new warm eddy that has formed in the oil and gas-producing region of the Gulf of Mexico.

Space suit technology can protect workers from heatstroke

08 November 2006 - European Space Agency The technology used in space suits to protect astronauts carrying out space walks in direct sunlight is now being used to develop protective clothing to safeguard firefighters and steel workers who often work in extremely hot and dangerous conditions.

Researchers convinced satellites are helpful in tracking epidemics

07 November 2006 - European Space Agency The amount of data acquired by satellites is increasing at an exponential rate, and researchers are learning about the value of this data in fighting epidemic outbreaks as a result of ESA’s Epidemio project.

Satellite multicasting improves educational information delivery

06 November 2006 - European Space Agency A project supported by the European Space Agency has combined satellite multicasting techniques and improved content management to enhance information delivery for education.

Satellite instrument helps tackle mysteries of ozone-eating clouds

05 November 2006 - European Space Agency Polar stratospheric clouds have become the focus of many research projects in recent years due to the discovery of their role in ozone depletion, but essential aspects of these clouds remain a mystery. MIPAS, an instrument onboard ESA’s Envisat, is allowing scientists to gain information about these clouds necessary for modelling ozone loss.

SMART-1 impact simulated in a laboratory sand-box

05 November 2006 - European Space Agency Laboratory simulations of the SMART-1 impact performed at the University of Kent, United Kingdom, suggest that the impact may have caused a clearly elongated lunar crater, and produced a high-speed rebounding for the spacecraft.

Ground movement risks identified by Terrafirma

05 November 2006 - European Space Agency Ground movements are responsible for hundreds of deaths and billions of Euros annually, and the threat they pose is increasing due to urbanisation and land use. ESA's GMES Service Element Programme is backing a project, Terrafirma, to help mitigate these risks.

Planck telescope behaves well in cold vacuum

04 November 2006 - European Space Agency ESA's Planck space telescope was removed last week from the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC, ESA's research and technology centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, after a thorough two-week test in temperatures down to -178 degrees Celsius. The test is an important milestone towards launch in 2008.

ESA’s ISO provides the first view of monstrous stars being born

04 November 2006 - European Space Agency Scientists have secured their first look at the birth of monstrous stars that shine 100 000 times more brightly than the Sun, thanks to ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory.

XMM-Newton reveals a tumbling neutron star

04 November 2006 - European Space Agency Using data from ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, an international group of astrophysicists discovered that one spinning neutron star doesn’t appear to be the stable rotator scientists would expect. These X-ray observations promise to give new insights into the thermal evolution and finally the interior structure of neutron stars.

Polar explorers use satellite broadband to stay in touch

03 November 2006 - European Space Agency A team of young explorers from the Climate Change College are on a ten day field trip, participating in ESA's CryoSat validation experiment on the Greenland Ice Sheet. To stay in touch, the team is using Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network, a technology development supported by ESA.

Geoinformation from space sharpens population density maps

03 November 2006 - European Space Agency In response to a growing demand for sharpened census data, GeoVille Information Systems has developed ‘real-world population’ maps based on Earth observation, under a contract named EO-STAT awarded by ESA, which can assist the private and public sector in fields such as geomarketing, market research, business location analysis, risk assessment and transport and urban planning.

Rare high-altitude clouds found on Mars

03 November 2006 - European Space Agency Planetary scientists have discovered the highest clouds above any planetary surface. They found them above Mars using the SPICAM instrument on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The results are a new piece in the puzzle of how the Martian atmosphere works.

New launch date for Europe’s first polar-orbiting weather satellite

03 November 2006 - European Space Agency MetOp-A, the first in a new European series of three meteorological operational satellites designed to monitor the Earth’s atmosphere from polar orbit, is now to be launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

First Vega P80 nozzle delivered

02 November 2006 - European Space Agency A ceremony took place at the facilities of Snecma Propulsion Solide in Bordeaux, France, to mark the occasion of the delivery of the first nozzle for the P80 solid rocket motor. The P80 is the first stage of the Vega small launcher.

Ariane 5 launches two telecommunications satellites

02 November 2006 - European Space Agency An Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites into geostationary transfer orbits. Lift-off of flight V172 took place at 22:15 GMT/UTC (19:15 local time, 00:15 / 12 August CEST/Paris). The satellites were accurately injected into the correct transfer orbits about 30 minutes later.

ESA’s new camera follows disintegration of a comet

02 November 2006 - European Space Agency The continuing disintegration of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has allowed ESA scientists to see into the interior of the comet. Using a revolutionary camera attached to the ESA Optical Ground Station on Tenerife, they have followed the detailed twists and turns of various comet fragments.

Space technology to help hospitals contain spread of avian flu infection

02 November 2006 - European Space Agency In response to concerns from hospitals to prepare for eventual pandemic flu outbreaks, the French company AirInSpace, with support from ESA's Technology Transfer Programme, has successfully adapted technology developed to protect astronauts for use in critical care centres to protect immune-deficient patients against airborne pathogens such as the avian flu virus.

New state of the art software will safeguard ATV rendezvous

01 November 2006 - European Space Agency If Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle encounters difficulties during rendezvous with the International Space Station, some highly sophisticated software will be on-hand to take over operations and avoid a potentially dangerous situation.

XMM-Newton spots the greatest of great balls of fire

01 November 2006 - European Space Agency Thanks to data from ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray satellite, a team of international scientists found a comet-like ball of gas over a thousand million times the mass of the Sun hurling through a distant galaxy cluster at over 750 kilometres per second.

Proba-3: ESA’s first step towards formation flying

01 November 2006 - European Space Agency Proba-3 is the third in ESA’s series of missions for validating developments in space systems while carrying an ‘added value’ user payload which can directly benefit from the innovations under test.

Space, defence and European security discussed at Europe’s spaceport

01 November 2006 - European Space Agency The WEU Assembly and the European Interparliamentary Space Conference are jointly holding a conference on space, defence and European security in Kourou, French Guiana, at the invitation of the European Space Agency, the French space agency and Arianespace.

New evidence links stellar remains to oldest recorded supernova

31 October 2006 - European Space Agency Recent observations from the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton Observatory and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have uncovered evidence that helps to confirm the identification of the remains of one of the earliest stellar explosions recorded by humans.

Telemedicine initiative for sub-Saharan Africa

31 October 2006 - European Space Agency The first meeting of the Telemedicine Task Force for sub-Saharan Africa was held in Brussels. In the conclusions of the Telemedicine workshop held in Brussels, where the potential of satellite telecommunication technology was demonstrated as a tool for supporting healthcare systems in sub-Saharan Africa, it was declared that a complete picture of the telemedicine opportunities offered by feasible and affordable applications in sub-Saharan Africa is very much needed.

Cluster makes an effervescent discovery

31 October 2006 - European Space Agency Space is fizzing. Above our heads, where the Earth’s magnetic field meets the constant stream of gas from the Sun, thousands of bubbles of superheated gas are constantly growing and popping.

Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center

30 October 2006 - European Space Agency Space Shuttle Discovery successfully landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 15:14 CEST (13:14 UT) today. Discovery returned with one crewmember less than at the start of the STS-121 mission, ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter will remain on board the International Space Station for six months for the Astrolab Mission.

Controlling robots that search for Mars life

30 October 2006 - European Space Agency As part of ESA's ambitious, long-term Aurora exploration programme, ExoMars will search for traces of life on Mars. The mission requires entirely new technologies for self-controlled robots, built-in autonomy and cutting-edge visual terrain sensors.

Satellite systems to warn of health threats

30 October 2006 - European Space Agency Satellite solutions can make all the difference to the efficiency of telemedicine. With this in mind, ESA is preparing a European telemedicine via satellite programme which will be of direct benefit to the healthcare community.

Arctic summer ice anomaly shocks scientists

30 October 2006 - European Space Agency Satellite images acquired have shown for the first time dramatic openings, over a geographic extent larger than the size of the British Isles, in the Arctic’s perennial sea ice pack north of Svalbard, and extending into the Russian Arctic all the way to the North Pole.

Spacecraft, heal thyself

20 January 2006 - European Space Agency Once a spacecraft is in orbit, engineers have virtually no chance of repairing anything that breaks. But what if a spacecraft could fix itself?

Europe’s newest Meteosat launches on Solstice Night

21 December 2005 - European Space Agency The second member of Europe’s new generation of weather satellites has successfully been lifted onto orbit, continuing an uninterrupted series of launch successes since 1977.

MARES, measuring muscle strength in space

31 October 2005 - European Space Agency A look at MARES, the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System, a pioneering new instrument for neuromuscular and exercise research on the International Space Station.

Fastnet yacht runs faster with space technology

10 August 2005 - European Space Agency Space has come down to Earth for this week's legendary Fastnet regatta. Competitor Marc Thiercelin's 20-metre Pro-Form yacht boasts lighter batteries, more efficient solar cells and advanced energy management systems - all spin-offs from Europe's space programmes.

Pioneering technology to explore other planets

16 June 2005 - European Space Agency Drilling holes on other planets and inventing novel textiles to secure large structures in space are just two of the 27 challenges that expert teams have been working on in the first year of ESA's Innovation Triangle Initiative.

Space 'eye' for textiles

16 February 2005 - European Space Agency An artificial eye developed for Earth observation is now being employed to recognise colour variations in dyed fabrics: a critical element of textile production. This could significantly reduce the 160 million metres of dyed fabrics discarded annually in Europe with high environmental costs.

Green car sets speed record

15 November 2004 - European Space Agency When the non-profit organisation IdéeVerte Compétition decided to create a 'green' racing car, they turned to space technology to make it safer.

Plastics and rubber – useful in space and on Earth

13 October 2004 - European Space Agency Innovative uses for plastics, rubber and their derivatives will be on display next week in Düsseldorf, at the world's leading trade fair for plastics and rubber, K2004. A team from ESA will be present to show visitors how these commonplace materials can be used in space – and how this can lead to new technology for use on Earth.

Winning racer backed by space technology

25 September 2003 - European Space Agency 'Henri Pescarolo demonstrated once again last week-end that innovative technologies we originally developed for our spacecraft can be put to work in automobiles improving both performance and safety,' says Pierre Brisson, Head of ESA's Technology Transfer and Promotion Office.

Revealed: Europe’s master plan for space technology

30 June 2003 - European Space Agency 'Europe has a yearly budget of approximately 400 million Euro for space technology research and development. ESA provides half of this budget, while the rest is going through national channels,' said Hans Kappler, ESA Director of Industrial Matters and Technology Programmes. 'It is very obvious this investment has to be harmonised in order to avoid unnecessary duplications of activities and fill strategic gaps.'