Category: Astronomie

  • ExoMars low-altitude parachute drop test

    ExoMars low-altitude parachute drop test

    The video features footage taken of the parachute deployment as seen from the ground, as well as from onboard GoPros fixed to the drop test vehicle and looking up at the parachute. The test focused on the deployment and inflation of the second main stage 35m-wide parachute, which will be the largest to fly on Mars.

    Discussing the test are Stephane Langlois, ESA ExoMars engineer, and John Underwood, principal engineer at Vorticity.

    The test was carried out by Vorticity Ltd under supervision of Thales Alenia Space France, Thales Alenia Space Italy and ESA, in Kiruna, Sweden, on 2 March 2018.

    Credits: ESA & Vorticity Ltd

  • New Crew Arrives at the Space Station on This Week @NASA – March 23, 2018

    New Crew Arrives at the Space Station on This Week @NASA – March 23, 2018

    A new crew at the space station, some science on the next SpaceX resupply mission, and testing Orion’s parachutes – a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0323_New%20Crew%20Arrives%20at%20the%20Space%20Station%20on%20This%20Week%20@NASA%20%E2%80%93%20March%2023,%202018.html

  • ESA Euronews: Az űrhajósoknak is fáj a háta

    ESA Euronews: Az űrhajósoknak is fáj a háta

    Az űrorvostudomány eredményei segíthetnek a földi betegségekben szenvedőknek is. Ami jó a Nemzetközi Űrállomáson, az segíthet a Newcastle-i nyugdíjasokon is.

    Az űrhajósoknak földöntúli munkájuk van. A hajnalt és a naplementét naponta 16-szor látják, és az űrben töltött hetek és hónapok alatt a testük kívül-belül átalakul. Izmaik és csontjaik tömegükből veszítenek, és egészségi állapotuk is megváltozik. Így az asztronauták testüket is a tudomány szolgálatába állítják.

    A nemzetközi űrállomáson zajló kutatások nem csak abban segítenek, hogy jobban megismerjük az emberi testet, hanem abban is, hogy olyan hétköznapi problémákra találjunk új megoldást, mint például a hátfájás. A Space márciusi adásában az űrmedicináról lesz szó.

  • ESA Euronews: Οι αστροναύτες λύνουν καθημερινά προβλήματα υγείας

    ESA Euronews: Οι αστροναύτες λύνουν καθημερινά προβλήματα υγείας

    Πειράματα σε αστροναύτες προσφέρουν χρήσιμα συμπεράσματα σε επιστήμονες για απλά ιατρικά θέματα που αντιμετωπίζουμε όλοι μας στη Γη

    Οι αστροναύτες έχουν μια απαιτητική δουλειά. Βλέπουν την ανατολή και τη δύση του ήλιου 16 φορές την ημέρα. Επειδή αυτό συμβαίνει για εβδομάδες, το σώμα τους αλλάζει εσωτερικά, αλλά και εξωτερικά. Χάνουν μυική και οστική μάζα και η υγεία τους επηρεάζεται πολλαπλά.

  • ESA – Space to Relax / eARTh

    ESA – Space to Relax / eARTh

    Having a stressful day? We got you covered!Sit back, turn the volume up and enjoy a relaxing moment brought to you by ESA and Lufthansa getting lost in the beauty of our planet with images captured by Envisat, JAXA ALOS, KARI Kompsat-2, GeoEye Ikonos-2 and NASA Landsat-5 and Landsat-7 satellites.

    Don’t forget to favourite this video. You will always have a space to relax with us.

    Music: “Page of Life” by Green Sun.

  • Earth from Space: Tokyo

    Earth from Space: Tokyo

    Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web TV virtual studios. In this edition, Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over Japan’s capital, the world’s largest megacity.

    See also http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/03/Tokyo to download the image.

  • ESA – Space to Relax / Frozen planet

    ESA – Space to Relax / Frozen planet

    Having a stressful day? We got you covered! Sit back, turn the volume up and enjoy a relaxing moment brought to you by ESA and Lufthansa exploring the coldest parts of our planet with a collection of ice images captured by the Envisat satellite.

    Don’t forget to favourite this video. You will always have a space to relax with us.

    Music: “Page of Life” by Green Sun.

  • NASA Honors Legacy of Renowned Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking

    NASA Honors Legacy of Renowned Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking

    NASA is honoring visionary physicist Stephen Hawking, who died at his home in Cambridge, England, early Wednesday morning.

    Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot noted Hawking’s role as a “passionate communicator who wanted to share the excitement of discovery with all,” adding that his “impact cannot be overstated.”

    “Stephen’s breakthroughs in the fields of physics and astronomy not only changed how we view the cosmos, but also has played, and will continue to play, a pivotal role in shaping NASA’s efforts to explore our solar system and beyond,” said Lightfoot.

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0314_NASA%20Honors%20Legacy%20of%20Renowned%20Astrophysicist%20Stephen%20Hawking.html

  • Lava tube fly-through

    Lava tube fly-through

    The “Cueva de los Verdes” lava tube in Lanzarote, Spain, is one of the world’s largest volcanic cave complexes with a total length of about 8 km.

    Geology experts from ESA’s Pangaea-X campaign mapped most of the lava tube system as part of a project supported by local authorities Cabildo of Lanzarote and the University of Padova, Italy. The data was acquired in November 2017 by Leica Geosystems.

    The map comes alive in great detail in 3D, helping institutions to protect the subterranean environment. The map also provides scientific data to study the origins of the tube and its peculiar formations.

    Pangaea-X is a test campaign that brings together geology, high-tech survey equipment and space exploration. Learn more about the science and technology behind this campaign visiting http://blogs.esa.int/pangaea

  • Send Your Name to the Sun on This Week @NASA – March 9, 2018

    Send Your Name to the Sun on This Week @NASA – March 9, 2018

    A chance to send your name to the Sun, testing systems for our Orion spacecraft, and sizing up Earth, from space – a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0309_Send%20Your%20Name%20to%20the%20Sun%20on%20This%20Week%20@NASA%20%E2%80%93%20March%209,%202018.html

  • Earth from Space: Italy and Mediterranean

    Earth from Space: Italy and Mediterranean

    Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web TV virtual studios. In this edition, Sentinel-3A treats us to a view stretching from Sardinia to Romania.

    Visit http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/03/Italy_and_Mediterranean to download the image.

  • NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Reveals the Depth of Jupiter’s Colored Bands

    NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Reveals the Depth of Jupiter’s Colored Bands

    For hundreds of years, this gaseous giant planet appeared shrouded in colorful bands of clouds extending from dusk to dawn, referred to as zones and belts. Story: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-juno-findings-jupiter-s-jet-streams-are-unearthly

    The bands were thought to be an expression of Jovian weather, related to winds blowing eastward and westward at different speeds.

    This animation illustrates a recent discovery by Juno that demonstrates these east-west flows, also known as jet-streams penetrate deep into the planet’s atmosphere, to a depth of about 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers). Due to Jupiter’s rapid rotation (Jupiter’s day is about 10 hours), these flows extend into the interior parallel to Jupiter’s axis of rotation, in the form of nested cylinders. Below this layer the flows decay, possibly slowed by Jupiter’s strong magnetic field.

    The depth of these flows surprised scientists who estimate the total mass involved in these jet streams to be about 1% of Jupiter’s mass (Jupiter’s mass is over 300 times that of Earth). This discovery was revealed by the unprecedented accuracy of Juno’s measurements of the gravity field.

    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI

  • Sentinel-3: a workhorse mission for Copernicus

    Sentinel-3: a workhorse mission for Copernicus

    Following its launch in February 2016 and subsequent commissioning phase, the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite has been systematically measuring our oceans, land, ice and atmosphere. The information feeds a range of practical applications and is used for monitoring and understanding large-scale global dynamics. Sentinel-3A will soon be joined in orbit by its identical twin, Sentinel-3B. Both satellites carry a suite of cutting-edge instruments to supply a new generation of data products, which are particularly useful for marine applications. For example, they monitor ocean-surface temperatures for ocean and weather forecasting services, aquatic biological productivity, ocean pollution and sea-level change. The mission also delivers unique and timely information about changing land cover, vegetation, urban heat islands, and for tracking wildfires. With the two satellites in orbit, global coverage and data delivery will be optimised.

  • 2017 Space App Camp

    2017 Space App Camp

    The sixth Space App Camp was held at ESA’s establishment in Frascati, Italy, in September 2017. The camp offers access to the latest space data – particularly from the European Copernicus programme – to app developers, who work to make the information accessible to a broad audience. Twenty-four developers from 14 countries attended the 2017 camp. In this short video, participants talk about why they attended and what they hoped to achieve.

    Travel App wins top prize at App camp:
    http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Travel_app_wins_top_prize_at_App_Camp

  • Space Station Crew Returns Safely on This Week @NASA – March 5, 2018

    Space Station Crew Returns Safely on This Week @NASA – March 5, 2018

    A safe return from the International Space Station, a new weather satellite launched into orbit, and our next mission to Mars moves closer to launch … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0305_Space%20Station%20Crew%20Returns%20Safely%20on%20This%20Week%20@NASA%20%E2%80%93%20March%205,%202018.html

  • ESRIN: ESA’s Eye on Earth

    ESRIN: ESA’s Eye on Earth

    Located in Frascati, Italy, ESRIN – known as the ESA Centre for Earth Observation – is one of the five ESA specialised centres situated in Europe. The mission and payload operations of ESA’s Earth observation satellites are managed here and ESRIN is the primary source for the acquisition, distribution and exploitation of data from these and other non-ESA satellites.Within ESRIN, a key role in Europe’s space effort has been undertaken with the development of the new small launcher, Vega, which took its maiden voyage in February 2012.
    ESRIN designs and develops all ESA-wide software for corporate applications and is responsible for developing security measures for classified space programmes. The European Centre for Space Records (ECSR) is also based at ESRIN. The ECSR appraises and preserves the valuable technical records of completed ESA projects together with their management archives to safeguard this valuable knowledge for generations to come.Finally, ESRIN is home to ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre. The centre serves as the central access point to a network of European near-Earth object data sources and information providers being established under ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Programme.For more information, visit the ESRIN site.

  • ESRIN: gli occhi dell’ESA sulla Terra

    ESRIN: gli occhi dell’ESA sulla Terra

    Located in Frascati, Italy, ESRIN – known as the ESA Centre for Earth Observation – is one of the five ESA specialised centres situated in Europe. The mission and payload operations of ESA’s Earth observation satellites are managed here and ESRIN is the primary source for the acquisition, distribution and exploitation of data from these and other non-ESA satellites.Within ESRIN, a key role in Europe’s space effort has been undertaken with the development of the new small launcher, Vega, which took its maiden voyage in February 2012.
    ESRIN designs and develops all ESA-wide software for corporate applications and is responsible for developing security measures for classified space programmes. The European Centre for Space Records (ECSR) is also based at ESRIN. The ECSR appraises and preserves the valuable technical records of completed ESA projects together with their management archives to safeguard this valuable knowledge for generations to come.Finally, ESRIN is home to ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre. The centre serves as the central access point to a network of European near-Earth object data sources and information providers being established under ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Programme.For more information, visit the ESRIN site.

  • Phobos and Saturn

    Phobos and Saturn

    These observations of Phobos and Saturn were taken by the Super Resolution Channel of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express. The video comprises 30 separate images acquired during Mars Express orbit 16 346 on 26 November 2016. The slight up and down movement of Saturn and Phobos in these images is caused by the oscillation of the spacecraft’s orientation after completing the turn towards the moon. Phobos can be seen in the foreground, partially illuminated, with Saturn visible as a small ringed dot in the distance.
    For more information go tohttp://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Mars_Express_views_moons_set_against_Saturn_s_rings

  • Astro Pi Mission Zero code running on the International Space Station!

    Astro Pi Mission Zero code running on the International Space Station!

    See Astro Pi Ed running one of the Mission Zero winners’ code on-board the ISS.

    Go to our website and to read more about Astro Pi Mission Zero: http://www.esa.int/Education/AstroPI/Astro_Pi_s_Mission_Zero_has_been_completed

  • The Second Meeting of the National Space Council on This Week @NASA – February 23, 2018

    The Second Meeting of the National Space Council on This Week @NASA – February 23, 2018

    Vice President Mike Pence led the second meeting of the National Space Council, Next Space Station Crew Trains for Launch, and Webb Telescope to Reveal Secrets of Mars … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0223_The%20Second%20Meeting%20of%20the%20National%20Space%20Council%20on%20This%20Week%20@NASA%20%E2%80%93%20February%2023,%202018.html

  • ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano talks science in space

    ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano talks science in space

    From ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano’s hometown in Catania, Italy, Luca talks about the science he ran on the International Space Station.

    The European laboratory Columbus was launched in 2008 and offers scientists a permanent place in space to conduct research that is out of this world.

    Luca’s first spaceflight was in 2013 with Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg. He conducted over 20 experiments during the Volare mission as flight engineer for Expeditions 36 and 37 and he was the first of ESA’s new generation of astronauts to fly into space.

    Luca talks about space research, being a human guinea pig, dieting to avoid bone disease osteoporosis, human physiology, using ultrasound remotely to diagnose back problems, measuring eye pressure and how his body and mind reacted to living in weightlessness.

    Luca is set for a second mission to the International Space Station in 2019.

    Follow Luca and his adventures in space and on Earth via http://lucaparmitano.esa.int

    More about Columbus here: http://www.esa.int/Columbus

  • ESA Euronews: Van-e élet a Marson?

    ESA Euronews: Van-e élet a Marson?

    A dél-spanyolországi Rio Tinto nevű hely gyakorlatilag a Mars a Földön. Ha itt van élet, vajon lehet a vörös bolygón is?

  • ESA Euronews: Se há vida na Terra, porque não em Marte?

    ESA Euronews: Se há vida na Terra, porque não em Marte?

    A Euronews esteve em Huelva, onde conheceu o Rio Tinto, cujas margens e sedimentos se parecem em todos os aspetos aos do Planeta Vermelho.
    Um grupo de cientistas procura sinais de vida noutros planetas do nosso sistema solar. E fazem-no com a recolha de amostras dos lugares mais inesperados.

  • ESA Euronews: Mars on Earth

    ESA Euronews: Mars on Earth

    The Rio Tinto river snakes through the Spanish countryside for 100 kilometres, a dark, blood-red stain of acid water and rusty-looking rocks that scientists love to study. Both ESA and NASA experts regularly spend weeks in the Rio Tinto, examining the life underground, and using it as a test bed to look for life on Mars.

    This video is also available in the following languages:
    German: https://youtu.be/K2D8T5i_Myk
    French: https://youtu.be/7cynIaX5O0I
    Italian: https://youtu.be/LOYgvHSR84g
    Spanish: https://youtu.be/YI9Prr0ZVrw
    Portuguese: https://youtu.be/VSDmRn-rRTE
    Greek: https://youtu.be/7KW2SJc2Yjo
    Hungarian: https://youtu.be/M0c6Ev63acs

  • NASA Provides Coverage of the National Space Council Meeting

    NASA Provides Coverage of the National Space Council Meeting

    NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida hosted a meeting of the National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday, Feb. 21. This was the second meeting of the council, which President Trump reestablished last year. “Moon, Mars, and Worlds Beyond: Winning the Next Frontier” included testimonials from leaders in the civil, commercial, and national security sectors about the importance of the United States’ space enterprise.

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-KSC-20180221-VP-CDC01-0001_Vice_President_Mike_Pence_National_Space_Council_Meeting_SSPF-3183467.html

  • ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter completes aerobraking

    ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter completes aerobraking

    Since arriving at Mars in October 2016, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has been aerobraking its way into a close orbit of the Red Planet by using the top of the atmosphere to create drag and slow down. It is almost in the right orbit to begin observations – only a few hundred kilometres to go! With aerobraking complete, additional manoeuvres will bring the craft into a near-circular two-hour orbit, about 400 km above the planet, by the end of April. The mission’s main goal is to take a detailed inventory of the atmosphere, sniffing out gases like methane, which may be an indicator of active geological or biological activity. The camera will help to identify surface features that may be related to gas emissions. The spacecraft will also look for water-ice hidden below the surface, which could influence the choice of landing sites for future exploration. It will also relay large volumes of science data from NASA’s rovers on the surface back to Earth and from the ESA–Roscosmos ExoMars rover, which is planned for launch in 2020.

    Visit our website to learn more about ExoMars: https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars

  • Profiling the wind

    Profiling the wind

    ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite will be launched later this year to measure the world’s winds from space. The satellite carries one of the most sophisticated instruments ever to be put into orbit: Aladin, which includes two powerful lasers, a large telescope and very sensitive receivers. The laser generates ultraviolet light that is beamed down into the atmosphere to profile the world’s winds – a completely new approach to measuring the wind from space. These vertical slices through the atmosphere, along with information it gathers on aerosols and clouds, will improve our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and contribute to climate research. As well as advancing science, Aeolus will play an important role in improving weather forecasts. The mission will also complement information about the atmosphere being provided by the Copernicus Sentinel missions.

    Visit our website to learn more: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Aeolus

  • Space debris – efforts to clean up space

    Space debris – efforts to clean up space

    The European Space Agency (ESA) is part of an international effort to monitor and – ultimately – tackle space debris. This junk – accumulated in orbit since the dawn of the space age sixty years ago – poses an increasing risk to operational spacecraft.

    ESA is developing missions to tackle the problem to help prevent a serious collision in space. The Agency is also monitoring possible dangers caused by fragments of redundant spacecraft falling to Earth, such as China’s space station Tiangong-1 – due to enter the atmosphere in the coming months.

    Visit our Clean Space site to learn more: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Clean_Space

  • A Strong State of NASA on This Week @NASA – February 16, 2018

    A Strong State of NASA on This Week @NASA – February 16, 2018

    The Fiscal Year 2019 budget and the State of NASA, astronauts at work outside the International Space Station, and the arrival of our next planet-hunting satellite … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0216_A%20Strong%20State%20of%20NASA%20on%20This%20Week%20@NASA%20%E2%80%93%20February%2016,%202018.html

  • State of NASA: How Cool Is That?

    State of NASA: How Cool Is That?

    On Feb. 12, NASA centers across the country hosted “State of NASA” events, following President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal delivery to the U.S. Congress. The events included an address, by acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, to the agency’s workforce, from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama. During his speech, Lightfoot highlighted how the budget would help the agency achieve its goals for space exploration.

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library:
    https://go.nasa.gov/2EnzVbj

  • “State of NASA” Events Highlight Agency Goals for Space Exploration

    “State of NASA” Events Highlight Agency Goals for Space Exploration

    On Feb. 12, NASA centers across the country hosted “State of NASA” events, following President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal delivery to the U.S. Congress. The events included an address, by acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, to the agency’s workforce, from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama. During his speech, Lightfoot highlighted how the budget would help the agency achieve its goals for space exploration.

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0212_Annual%20’State%20of%20NASA’%20Speech%20to%20Highlight%20Agency%20Goals%20for%20Space%20Exploration.html

  • ESAC Research Fellows – Ginevra Favole

    ESAC Research Fellows – Ginevra Favole

    Ginevra Favole is an ESAC research fellow working on the large-scale structures of the universe. Her main scientific field is emission-line galaxies, galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing. She also works with mock catalogues and N-body cosmological simulations.

    Go to https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esac-science-faculty/home to learn more.

  • ESAC Research Fellows – Maggie Lieu

    ESAC Research Fellows – Maggie Lieu

    Maggie Lieu is an ESAC research fellow working on Euclid, a visible and near-infrared space telescope due to launch in 2021. By measuring the shapes of distant galaxies we can determine the mass of the largest systems in the Universe, galaxy clusters. Euclid will achieve unprecedented shape measurements of galaxies covering almost half of the extragalactic sky.Maggie is developing statistical methods to deal with this upcoming big, noisy dataset, so that we can better understand the physics of galaxy clusters and theirrolein the Dark Universe.

    Go to https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esac-science-faculty/home to learn more.

  • Clubbing in Zero-G

    Clubbing in Zero-G

    On 7 February 2018, 10 years to the day that Europe’s Columbus space laboratory was launched to the International Space Station, 20 lucky clubbers got a taste of weightlessness – not to conduct gravity-free science but to party with superstar DJs Steve Aoki, W&W and Le Shuuk.

    Taking off from Frankfurt airport and organised by BigCityBeats, the WORLD CLUB DOME project served as a teaser party for a bigger event on Earth in June. The aircraft flew up and down angled at 45º – at the top of the curve the passengers and experiments experience around 20 seconds of microgravity. Before and after the weightless period, increased gravity of up to 2 g is part of the ride.

    ESA astronauts Pedro Duque and Jean-Francois Clervoy joined the weightless flight and provided background and safety tips to the DJs and party-goers.

    The aircraft was on loan from its usual airport in Bordeaux, France, where it is used for scientific research and testing equipment for spaceflight. These flights are the only way to test microgravity with humans without going through lengthy astronaut-training and flights to the International Space Station. For this reason, parabolic flights are often used to validate space instruments and train astronauts before spaceflight.

    ESA’s parabolic flight campaigns for science and technology investigations are generally performed twice a year, in spring and autumn.

    ESA, Fraport Frankfurt and the City of Frankfurt and BigCityBeats combined a fascination of science with the joy and fun of dancing in this world’s-first flight.

    More about ESA’s parabolic flights: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Research/Parabolic_flights

    This event was the official pre-party to the BigCityBeats WORLD CLUB DOME “The Hollywood Edition” taking place 1/2/3 June 2018 in Frankfurt. More info via http://www.worldclubdome.com

    Credit: BigCityBeats/WorldClubDome

  • A decade of European space science on Columbus

    A decade of European space science on Columbus

    Looking at a decade of European science on the International Space Station with the Columbus laboratory.

    Columbus houses as many disciplines as possible in a small volume, from astrobiology to solar science through metallurgy and psychology – more than 227 experiments have been carried out during this remarkable decade. Countless papers have been published drawing conclusions from experiments performed in Columbus.

    From circadian rhythms and new temperature sensors to edible algae as astronaut food through running experiments to grow crystals and investigate processes in a pure environment without gravity interfering with the process – Columbus helping scientists push the boundaries of what is possible and increase our knowledge for life on Earth.

    More about Columbus:
    http://www.esa.int/columbus

  • The making of Columbus

    The making of Columbus

    From building to liftoff and installation, these images show the making of European space lab Columbus and its daily use for out-of-this-world research.

    Like the transatlantic voyages that Christopher Columbus made half a millennium ago, the Columbus module was meticulously planned, budgeted, scrapped and redesigned before getting the official blessing to build, ship and launch.

    The laboratory ascended to orbit aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on 7 February 2008. Nestling in the spaceplane’s cargo bay, Columbus was accompanied by a seven-man crew.

    On 11 February, the crew on the International Space Station captured the new arrival. At that moment, Columbus became Europe’s first permanent human outpost in orbit and Europe became a full partner of the International Space Station.

    Columbus houses as many disciplines as possible in a small volume, from astrobiology to solar science through metallurgy and psychology – more than 225 experiments have been carried out during this remarkable decade. Countless papers have been published drawing conclusions from experiments performed in Columbus.

    More about Columbus here: esa.int/Columbus

  • Destination Earth orbit – director’s cut

    Destination Earth orbit – director’s cut

    ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen narrates this re-edited video on the inspiring endeavours of human spaceflight and how it changes our daily lives.

    Andreas covers the first flight in Earth-orbit and the permanent inhabitation of space on the International Space Station to future exploration of our Solar System – and how these events inspired his work as an engineer and later astronaut.

    The video touches on the amazing research done in space and for space and the technological impact this has making life on Earth better.

  • Columbus 10 years on orbit

    Columbus 10 years on orbit

    On 7 February 2008, Space Shuttle Atlantis launched to the International Space Station. In its cargo bay, ESA’s laboratory module Columbus. Now for adecade Columbus has been a part of the ISS. It is the place where ESA astronauts have done countless experiments in microgravity and the scientific importance of the module can hardly be overstated.

    Join us live from ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands on 7 February for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Columbus laboratory and the launch of the first Automated Transfer Vehicle. Details: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Columbus/Live_celebrating_10_years_of_European_space_science

  • Celestial Triple Treat on This Week @NASA – February 2, 2018

    Celestial Triple Treat on This Week @NASA – February 2, 2018

    Super Blue Blood Moon – a rare triple treat up in the sky, celebrating America’s first explorer in space, and smoke and fire – another Space Launch System engine test … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

    This video is available for download from NASA’s Image and Video Library: https://images.nasa.gov/details-NHQ_2018_0202_Celestial%20Triple%20Treat%20on%20This%20Week%20@NASA%20%E2%80%93%20February%202,%202018.html

  • Earth from Space: Tunis wetlands

    Earth from Space: Tunis wetlands

    Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios. In this edition, Sentinel-2 takes us over Tunisia’s capital Tunis and surrounding wetlands.

    See also http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/02/Tunis_wetlands to download the image.