ESA Science

Discover more about this step 👉 esa.int/ESA_Multimedia…

Fuelled for launch! ⛽ Specialists wearing ‘SCAPE’ suits filled Smile with fuel ahead of its launch on a Vega-C rocket on 9 April. Smile will use 90% of its fuel during the first month in space to gradually elongate its orbit until it ultimately reaches 121 000 km above the North Pole.

XRISM solves the 50-year mystery of a famous star 🌟 An invisible companion consuming material from the star gamma-Cas has been revealed as the culprit for curious X-rays coming from the stellar system 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…

🆕 A return to the Crab Nebula 🦀 Nearly 1000 years ago, astronomers saw something blazing in the sky – a supernova so bright it was visible in daylight. Today, astronomers continue to watch its remnant (the Crab Nebula) evolve. 1/3

Discover more about the science results we expect from Smile here 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…

The Smile mission will view the full Sun-Earth connection, helping us solve 3️⃣ mysteries: 🌬️ 🌍 What happens where solar wind meets Earth’s magnetic shield? 🌍 ⚠️ What causes magnetic glitches on the dark side of Earth? 🚨 🧲 How can we predict the most dangerous magnetic storms earlier?

🚨New article alert🚨From icy moons to icy interstellar objects! 💫 If you were wowed by @esa 's Juice images of 3I/ATLAS, you’ll be even more wowed when you learn how the mission team managed to pull off the unprecedented observation campaign. 🛰️ Read here 👉 esa.int/Enabling_Suppo…

Meanwhile, check out our launch kit available in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor… 2/2

🚨 Media invitation 🚨 The Smile mission is set to launch on 9 April at 08:29 CEST. If you're a journalist, join one of our online media briefings in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Register by 17:00 CET on 23 March. Details here 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor… 1/2

Follow along as we keep you posted on the final preparations for the Smile launch right here 🚀 A media briefing in English will be livestreamed via ESA Web TV on Thursday 26 March at 14:00 CET for anybody to watch 📺 Details 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…

🚨 We have a launch date! The Smile mission is set to launch on a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport on Thursday 9 April at 08:29 CEST. A collaboration between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Smile will study how Earth responds to the solar wind from the Sun. 1/2

🔴 #LiveNow: media briefing following the 345th ESA Council meeting. 📺 watch.esa.int/Two/

January–March 2026 was a busy season for us! Get up to speed on European space with our new ESA Impact visual report, out now 👉 esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/pub…

🆕 A comet has been caught crumbling! ☄️ Comet K1 had just passed close to the Sun 🌞 heading out of the Solar System when Hubble turned its eye towards it and caught something unexpected.. 1/4

#WatchLive: Join us on 19 March at 13:00 GMT/14:00 CET for a media briefing following the 345th ESA Council meeting taking place in Interlaken, Switzerland. 📺 watch.esa.int

🚀 10 years ago, our largest and most sophisticated martian explorer left Earth behind. To mark the launch anniversary, here are 5 remarkable things @esa's Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) was made for 🧵👇

Welcome to the Large Space Simulator! 🌌 Our terrestrial planet hunter, Plato, has been placed inside this ESA chamber for a series of vital tests under space‑like conditions. Discover how it is like inside Europe's largest cryovacuum chamber here 👉 esa.int/ESA_Multimedia…

MN Colibri delivers the Smile satellite and the Vega-C upper stage in Kourou, French Guiana. Following the docking, the containers were carefully unloaded and taken by lorry to Europe's Spaceport, which lies just a few kilometres away from the town of Kourou. 📽️ 👇

Next up, Smile will go through a full health check and then be fuelled with propellant, before finally meeting the rocket that will carry it to space sometime between 8 April and 7 May. Launch technicians have already started building the Vega-C rocket. Read more 👉esa.int/Science_Explor…

🚢 🚚Following a two-week journey, Inspector Smile has arrived at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Smile travelled with another friend onboard: the Vega-C upper stage, which will stay attached to Smile until the last moment before dropping it off in a very precise orbit around Earth.