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Vega-C liftoff
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Warsaw – the capital and largest city of Poland.
Ariane flying into space with two boosters – artist's impression
ESA DG Josef Aschbacher
Ariane 5 rocket launch in April 2023 featuring a special piece of artwork on the nose: This drawing was the winning entry to the ‘JUICE Up Your Rocket!’ competition, which invited children from all over the world to create a work of art related to Juice.
Global Mars in colour
Liftoff, Vega-C #VV29
Miura 1 liftoff (credit: PLD Space)
A spiral galaxy shown in mid-infrared light. The image is dominated by an extremely bright glow from the galaxy’s nucleus. Six large and two smaller rays of light emit from the centre, which are diffraction spikes created by the telescope’s optics. The galaxy’s spiral arms are visible by two lines of glowing orange bubbles which whirl out into the disc. Swirling blue clouds of dust make up the rest of the galaxy.
Close-up of Plato’s cameras
Red solar panel covers with Airbus logos contrast with the white spacecraft modules and surrounding white and yellow integration hall structures.
This mosaic of cloud-free images from the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite spans the entire continent of Europe, and more. The view stretches from Iceland in the northwest across to Scandinavia and Russia in the northeast, and from the northern tips of Norway and Finland to as far south as Algeria, Libya and Egypt. While the satellite’s ocean and land colour instrument depicts the green of summer in many parts of Europe, the dryness that summer brings, particularly to the south, can also be seen with yellows and browns in parts of Spain, Italy and Turkey, for example.
Satellite trails over Wales
ESA and JAXA deepen collaboration in planetary defence
Virtual reality for astronaut training
This image shows the four galaxies studied in this research, each of which has previously been the subject of a Picture of the Month: Messier 51 (top left), Messier 83 (top right), NGC 4449 (bottom left), and NGC 628 (bottom right).
In-game image from Aphelion by DON'T NOD
Examples of rocket engines and launcher scale models on display at the Space Pavilion at ILA, the Berlin Air and Space Show, in April 2018.
A full-size model Star Wars TIE Fighter appeared at ESA ESTEC Open Day in the Netherlands in 2023, it was housed in the Hertz radio-frequency test chamber where it was seen by more than 8 000 visitors.
A section of the original image, captured by Copernicus Sentinel-2 on 21 April 2026, showing an array of vibrant colours in the tulip fields of the northern Netherlands.
A spiral galaxy seen close up and tilted at an angle, so that its disc fills the view from corner to corner. Its disc is yellow near to the centre and pale blue farther out, showing cooler and hotter stars, respectively. Thin brown clouds of dust, glowing pink spots of star formation, and sparkling blue patches filled with star clusters swirl through the galaxy. Behind it, small orange dots are very distant galaxies.
Close-up of Plato’s cameras
Two interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. At left is NGC 2937, nicknamed the Egg for its appearance. At right is NGC 2936, nicknamed the Penguin for its appearance. The latter’s beak-like region points toward and above the Egg.
On 22 April, ESA signed an arrangement with the European Defence Agency (EDA) to better study space-based Earth observation technology for security and defence. EDA Deputy Chief Executive Anders Sjöborg (third from left) together with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and Simonetta Cheli (fourth and fifth from left) and respective teams at the signing ceremony in Brussels
Architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has designed a semi-inflatable lunar habitat. Multiple habitats would be built up over time on the lip of Shackleton Crater near the lunar south pole, offering continuous views of Earth as well as near-continuous sunlight and water ice in adjacent 'cold trap' craters.
April 14, 2023: Launch of the Juice mission on an Ariane 5 launcher.
NASA's Orion spacecraft and its crew splashed down safely in a deep blue Pacific Ocean, marking the successful end of the Artemis II mission.