Our Biomass satellite has successfully launched, marking a major leap forward in understanding Earth’s forests and their vital role in the carbon cycle.
It lifted off on 29 April 2025 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana aboard Vega-C, and is already sending back its first signals. Over the next few days, our mission controllers will carefully deploy Biomass’ enormous 12-metre-wide reflector – the key to its unique abilities.
📹 European Space Agency (ESA) 📸 ESA/CNES/Arianespace
ESA’s state-of-the-art Biomass mission is designed to provide new insights into the health and evolution of the world’s forests, helping us understand how they are changing over time and, importantly, their critical role in the global carbon cycle. Equipped with the first-ever fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar, this satellite can penetrate dense forest canopies. The long 70 cm wavelength of the radar enables it to measure ‘biomass’—the woody trunks, branches and stems—where trees store the majority of their carbon.
Credits: European Space Agency (ESA)
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
As we approach the launch of ESA’s EarthCARE mission, we caught up with some of the scientists, engineers and experts behind the mission.
With the climate crisis increasingly tightening its grip, ESA’s Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer mission (EarthCARE) will shed new light on the complex interactions between clouds, aerosols and radiation in Earth’s atmosphere.
EarthCARE is the largest and most complex Earth Explorer mission. It comes at a critical time in the development of kilometre-scale resolution, global climate models and will provide an important contribution to an improved understanding of cloud convection and its role in Earth’s radiation budget.
EarthCARE is an ESA mission, but it has been developed as a cooperation between ESA and JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency.
This video features interviews with: Pavlos Kollias from Stony Brook University – McGill University, Thorsten Fehr, EarthCARE Mission Scientist at ESA, Robin Hogan, Senior Scientist at ECMWF, Dirk Bernaerts, EarthCARE Project Manager at ESA, Kotska Wallace, Mission and Optical Payload Manager at ESA, Tomomi Nio, EarthCARE Mission Manager at JAXA, Eiichi Tomita, EarthCARE/CPR Project Manager at JAXA, Ulla Wandinger, Senior Scientist at Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research and Bjoern Frommknecht, EarthCARE Mission Manager at ESA.
Follow the EarthCARE launch campaign blog for more updates.
Credits: ESA – European Space Agency
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
After years of development and a rigorous testing programme, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has left Munich, Germany, and is now on its away to SpaceX’s launch site in Vandenberg, California. Once it arrives, it will be put into storage for a few weeks until it is time to ready the satellite for liftoff – which is scheduled to launch in May on a Falcon 9 rocket.
The Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer, or EarthCARE for short, is the most complex Earth Explorer mission to date. The new satellite will look at the role that clouds and aerosols play in heating and cooling Earth’s atmosphere – contributing to our understanding of climate change.
With its unique set of four instruments, EarthCARE will examine the role clouds and aerosols play in reflecting solar radiation back into space and also in trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface.
EarthCARE is a joint venture between ESA and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
This video features interviews with Simonetta Cheli, Director of Earth Observation Programmes at ESA, Thorsten Fehr, ESA’s EarthCARE Mission Scientist, Dirk Bernaerts, ESA’s EarthCARE Project Manager and Eiichi Tomita, JAXA’s EarthCARE/CPR Project Manager.
Credits: ESA – European Space Agency
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Mission complete. ESA’s second European Remote Sensing (ERS-2) satellite has reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean. The satellite returned at 18:17 CET (17:17 UTC) between Alaska and Hawaii.
ERS-2 was launched almost 30 years ago, on 21 April 1995. Together with ERS-1, it provided invaluable long-term data on Earth’s land surfaces, ocean temperatures, ozone layer and polar ice extent that revolutionised our understanding of the Earth system.
ERS-2’s reentry was ‘natural’. ESA used the last of its fuel, emptied its batteries and lowered the satellite from its altitude of 785 km to 573 km. This reduced the risk of collision with other satellites and space debris. As a result, it was not possible to control ERS-2 at any point during its reentry and the only force driving its descent was unpredictable atmospheric drag. As well as leaving a remarkable legacy of data that still continue to advance science, this outstanding mission set the stage for many of today’s satellites and ESA’s position at the forefront of Earth observation.
The ERS-2 reentry is part of ESA’s wider efforts to ensure the long-term sustainability of space activities. These include ESA’s Clean Space initiative which promotes the development of new technologies for more sustainable space missions in collaboration with the wider European space community, as well as the Zero Debris Approach, which will even further reduce the debris left in both Earth and lunar orbits by future missions.
Credits: ESA – European Space Agency
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
The Copernicus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Monitoring (CO2M) mission will be the first satellite mission to measure how much carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere through human activity.
CO2M isn’t just a mission; it’s a crucial step in our commitment to understanding and mitigating climate change. It will offer unprecedented precision in monitoring carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel at national and regional scales.
Its data will provide the EU with a unique and independent source of information to assess the effectiveness of policy measures and to track their impact towards decarbonising Europe ahead of the next Global Stocktake set to place in 2028.
The video features interviews with Valerie Fernandez, CO2M Mission Project Manager, Yannig Durand, CO2M Payload Manager and Yasjka Meijer, CO2M Mission Scientist.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
25 years ago, Copernicus set out to transform the way we see our planet. It is the largest environmental monitoring programme in the world. Learn more about the Copernicus programme and the Sentinel satellite missions developed by ESA. 👉 https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus
Credits: ESA
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Europe’s latest weather satellite, the Meteosat Third Generation Imager, has just delivered its first image of Earth. What does this satellite do exactly? And what does this mean for weather forecasting? Learn more about the Meteosat Third Generation and how this new generation of satellites is set to revolutionise weather forecasting in Europe.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Europe’s latest weather satellite, the Meteosat Third Generation Imager, has just delivered its first image of Earth. What does this satellite do exactly? And what does this mean for weather forecasting? Learn more about the Meteosat Third Generation and how this new generation of satellites is set to revolutionise weather forecasting in Europe.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Imagine the world without water: as cold and lifeless as the planet Mars. Earth is unique in our solar system in being able to sustain liquid water on its surface. Water is essential for life and for Earth’s climate, helping transport heat around the planet, but it is difficult to track through the whole water cycle. The global view offered by satellites helps. ESA’s Climate Change Initiative is looking at a range of climate variables linked to the water cycle.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Galileo has grown to become Europe’s single largest satellite constellation, and the world’s most accurate satellite navigation system, delivering metre-level positioning to more than 3.5 billion users around the globe.
It all began at ESTEC’s Test Centre, Europe’s largest satellite testing facility. This is where the very first positioning fix took place in March 2013, after the launch into orbit of the initial four IOV satellites. Following that, all 34 Galileo Full Operational Capability satellites also passed by ESTEC for their pre-flight testing. This 3000 sq. m environmentally-controlled complex, operated and managed by European Test Services for ESA, hosts an array of test equipment able to simulate all aspects of spaceflight, from the noise and vibration of launch to the vacuum and temperature extremes of Earth orbit. The production line at manufacturer OHB in Germany completed one new satellite every six weeks. After integration each satellite was then shipped to the ESTEC Test Centre for a three-month test campaign, after which it would be accepted by the Agency and declared ready for flight. Some facilities have had to be adapted specifically for Galileo, and the ESTEC Test Centre had to institute new security protocols because this was the first time that satellites with security restrictions were being tested at the site. Today there are 28 of these Galileo First Generation satellites in service, with 10 more due to be launched in the next years. Upgraded Galileo Second Generation satellites are under development and will follow them into orbit later this decade. Members of ESA’s Galileo team and ETS look back on this massive testing effort that established Galileo was ready for space.
*About Galileo* : Galileo is managed and funded by the European Union. The European Commission, ESA and EUSPA (the EU Agency for the Space Programme) have signed an agreement by which ESA acts as design authority and system development prime on behalf of the Commission and EUSPA as the exploitation and operation manager of Galileo/EGNOS.
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
In this week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the department of Bouches-du-Rhône in southern France. It is from here where the first Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite set sail on its journey to Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
