Based on the outstanding success of the first tandem mission between ERS-2 and Envisat last year, ESA has paired the two satellites together again to help improve our understanding of the planet.

A pale yellow dot to the human eye, Earth’s twin planet comes to life in the ultraviolet and the infrared. New images taken by instruments on board ESA’s Venus Express provide insight into the turbulent atmosphere of our neighbouring planet.

Climate change, natural disasters, humanitarian crises - today's challenges require quick access to information about what's happening on the ground. A new European system will use satellite and terrestrial data to help the human response.

The High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA’s Mars Express imaged the Eumenides Dorsum mountains on the Red Planet.

New rifts have developed on the Wilkins Ice Shelf that could lead to the opening of the ice bridge that has been preventing the ice shelf from disintegrating and breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula.

A step towards the creation of a new European Space Agency research centre in the United Kingdom was taken this week with an agreement made at the ESA Ministerial Council in The Hague.

ESA PR 47-2008. The Ministers in charge of space activities in the European Space Agency's 18 Member States and Canada today concluded a successful two-day Council meeting in The Hague, agreeing to undertake new initiatives in several fields and endorsing the next phases of a set of ongoing programmes.

Two of our galaxy's most massive stars, until recently shrouded in mystery, have been viewed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, unveiling greater detail than ever before.

It was a tough choice for the jury to make. Within just a few weeks of launching the competition, over 2000 drawings were received from primary school children eager to see ESA astronaut Frank De Winne wearing their t-shirt in space. Today, ESA is proud to announce the names of three winners.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 released a probe that impacted close to the lunar south pole on 14 November. Following this, the instruments on the spacecraft are being switched on to get the science observations started.

ESA PR 46-2008. ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is set to become the first European Commander of the International Space Station.

Scientists using ESA’s Mars Express have produced the first crude map of aurorae on Mars. These displays of ultraviolet light appear to be located close to the residual magnetic fields generated by Mars’s crustal rocks. They highlight a number of mysteries about the way Mars interacts with electrically charged particles originating from the Sun.

ESA PR 45-2008. Today, ESA has signed the Small GEO Platform and Small GEO Mission contracts with the respective industrial primes, namely: OHB- System AG (Germany) and Hispasat S.A. (Spain).

A consortium of Portuguese and Italian companies, led by the Portuguese National Health Institute and with the support of ESA, is developing a Health Early Warning System designed to enable timely detection and tracking of emerging threats to public health and safety via satellite.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was carried into space early this morning with the successful launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A historic event took place at ESA sites across Europe today - the flag of the Czech Republic was hoisted alongside those of ESA's other Member States, officially symbolising the country becoming ESA’s 18th Member State.

Imagine how difficult it is to control a spacecraft thousands of miles away, ensure it arrives at the right location and then get the scientific and photographic equipment up and running. To do this highly sophisticated software is needed; software that can also be used on Earth to manage equally complex TV terrestrial broadcasting.

Chandrayaan-1, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) lunar orbiter, was captured into orbit around the Moon on 8 November. One day later, the spacecraft performed a manoeuvre that lowered the closest point of its orbit down to 200 km from the Moon.

The crew selection for a simulated Mars mission moved a step closer to completion recently with ESA's last eight candidates being put through extensive medical screening in Moscow. Two of the European candidates will be chosen to join four Russian crew members on a 105-day study due to start in March next year.

ESA PR 43-2008. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a sprit of brotherhood”, states Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Many rural areas face a lack of public transportation connections. Although the need of public transportation services is undeniable, allocating buses on scheduled routes and times is financially unjustifiable. The Canadian-Belgium ‘SatelBus’ project solves this by creating an efficient ‘bus on demand’ service.

Following on from the successful “Vega Maiden Flight CubeSat Workshop” held at ESA/ESTEC in January 2008, which was the first CubeSat workshop to be held at European-level, the ESA Education Office is pleased to announce the Second European CubeSat Workshop one year later as planned.

Yesterday, following a fifth orbit-raising manoeuvre, the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft successfully settled into a trajectory that will take it to the Moon.

Humanitarian aid workers responding to devastating flooding in Honduras have received assistance from space, with satellite images of affected areas provided rapidly following activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is back in business with a snapshot of the fascinating galaxy pair Arp 147. The science operations were resumed on 25 October 2008, four weeks after a problem with the science data formatter took the spacecraft into safe mode.

Thanks to experience gained from working with ESA on its Integral spacecraft, a British company has developed a gamma-ray detection device using similar technology as used in the gamma-ray instrument onboard the Integral astronomy satellite to detect and identify the radioactive material mixed with conventional explosives in 'dirty bombs'.

The thickness of sea ice in large parts of the Arctic declined by as much as 19% last winter compared to the previous five winters, according to data from ESA’s Envisat satellite.

The Teide volcanic peak on the island of Tenerife acted as a mock-up of the Moon landscape last week, with eight European student teams tuning, testing and driving their lunar rovers in preparation for a robotics competition that took place during the dark nights of last weekend.

Innovators Peter Hall and Christine Edwards from British company Sci-Tech were awarded this year's Galileo Masters 2008 and the EGNOS special prize in the European Satellite Navigation Competition for their novel tracking system for seamen falling overboard.

Sounding the Sun through a technique similar to seismology has opened a new era for understanding the Sun’s interior. The COROT satellite has now applied this technique to three stars, directly probing the interiors of stars beyond the Sun for the first time.

Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon, was successfully launched earlier this morning from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) in Sriharikota, India.

European scientists are preparing two new windows on the Universe that will give astronomers an unprecedented look at stars forming, and the aftermath of the 'Big Bang.'

The conference ‘Building a Safer Space Together’, taking place in Rome from 21 to 23 October, is an invitation to reflect and exchange information on the essential aspects of space safety on a global basis.

European space scientists are getting closer to unravelling the origin of Mars’ larger moon, Phobos. Thanks to a series of close encounters by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, the moon looks almost certain to be a ‘rubble pile’, rather than a single solid object. However, mysteries remain about where the rubble came from.

The foreseen 27 October launch date of GOCE has had to be postponed to allow the enquiry board time to conclude its work. A new launch date will be announced here as soon as possible.

The 2008 ozone hole – a thinning in the ozone layer over Antarctica – is larger both in size and ozone loss than 2007 but is not as large as 2006.

German athlete Wojtek Czyz, running with a space-tech enhanced prosthetic leg, set a new world record at the Paralympics 2008 in Beijing, reaching an amazing 6.50 m and beating the previous world record by 27 cm.

Europe's ATV - the Jules Verne - ended its first mission with a controlled break-up over the Pacific. Its developers are already thinking about the future of Automated Transport Vehicles, and hope to develop a craft that can not only return to earth intact, but can also carry a crew of astronauts.

ESA and European industries have updated the planning of the preparatory activities for a new tentative launch date of 27 October 2008 for the GOCE satellite.

ESA PR 41-2008. Europe’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Jules Verne successfully completed its six-month ISS logistics mission today with its controlled destructive re-entry over a completely uninhabited area of the South Pacific.

The space industry is one of today’s most powerful technology innovation drivers. New programmes such as space missions to Mars and the moon push the boundaries of technology development. Aimed at industry, the second European Technology Transfer Conference will present technology spin-off opportunities during the Materialica tradefair in Munich, 13-14 October.

The High Resolution Stereo Camera obtained images of the Mangala Fossae trough, a system of outflow channels on Mars that bears evidence of lava deposition and catastrophic floods.

Scientists are now able to better explain why Mars’s residual southern ice cap is misplaced, thanks to data from ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft - the martian weather system is to blame. And so is the largest impact crater on Mars – even though it is nowhere near the south pole.

Space technology is now being used to help Spanish ham experts ensure that hams awarded the highly prized ‘jamon’ label are worthy of the name. Technology used to measure the liquid shift that occurs in an astronaut’s body in microgravity has been developed to measure the water retention in cured hams.

Residents along the Gulf Coast are bracing for Hurricane Ike as it travels over the Gulf of Mexico after ripping through Cuba and Haiti. ESA’s Envisat satellite is tracking the storm, which is forecast to make landfall on the Texas coast by 13 September.

ESA PR 37-2008 ESA's comet chaser, Rosetta, last night flew by a small body in the main asteroid belt, asteroid Steins, collecting a wealth of information about this rare type of minor Solar System body.

The first images from Rosetta’s OSIRIS imaging system and VIRTIS infrared spectrometer were derived from raw data this morning and have delivered spectacular results.

The Rosetta control room at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre, ESOC, received the first radio signal after closest approach to asteroid (2867) Steins at 22:14 CEST, confirming a smooth fly-by.

This animation is composed of images used for the optical navigation campaign as Rosetta followed (2867) Steins, refining its trajectory to close in on the asteroid. They were taken daily by Navigation Camera A between 25 August and 3 September.

Steins, a rare E-type asteroid, holds clues on how the planets formed.

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The Rosetta Blog is now online, and will be updated throughout the fly-by of Steins with news and information direct from ESA's European Space Operations Centre.

Rosetta Blog

The Rosetta spacecraft control room is buzzing with anticipation as Rosetta closes in on asteroid 2867 Steins. The fly-by timeline includes a series of critical events, culminating with closest approach - expected at 20:58 CEST, 5 September 2008.

ESA PR 35-2008. ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft will make a historic encounter with asteroid (2867) Steins on 5 September 2008. The doors of ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, will be open to the media as of 18:00 on 5 September to follow the fly-by events.

The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) mounted on Mars Express was dormant after its first and only operational use in 2003. It is now back in action as the 'Mars Webcam', providing views of the Red Planet that are not obtainable from Earth.

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ESA PR 34-2008. The European Space Agency is about to launch the most sophisticated mission ever to investigate the Earth’s gravitational field and to map the reference shape of our planet – the geoid - with unprecedented resolution and accuracy.

Miniaturised ceramic gas sensors, originally developed for measuring oxygen levels for spacecraft re-entry vehicles, enables improved human breath measurement apparatus, better control of heater combustion thereby reducing pollution, and higher safety in fuel cell manufacturing.

In November 2008, ministers responsible for space activities in ESA's Member States and Canada will gather in The Hague to set the course of Europe’s space programme over the period ahead.

Mars Express closed in on the intriguing martian moon Phobos at 6:50 CEST on 23 July, flying past at 2.96 km/s, only 100 km from the centre of the moon. The ESA spacecraft’s fly-bys of the moon have returned its most detailed full-disc images ever, also in 3-D, using the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board.

For the first time ESA is offering an Innovation Prize as part of this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition. ESA has already been supporting this competition through its Technology Transfer Programme Office since the start four years ago.

Scientists and engineers are preparing ESA’s Mars Express for several close fly-bys of the Martian moon Phobos. Passing within 100 km of the surface, Mars Express will conduct some of the most detailed investigations of the moon to date.

The Cassini mission is new two-year mission that will address new questions and bring it closer to two of its most intriguing targets: Titan and Enceladus. On 30 June, Cassini completed its four-year prime mission and began its extended mission, which was approved in April this year.

On 8 May 2008, the Cooperation Agreement between the Argentine Republic and ESA was renewed for five years.

Do you have a great idea for the use of satellite navigation? If so you could win one of the prizes in this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition, supported by ESA through its Technology Transfer Programme Office.

The operations of the Cassini spacecraft, part of the international NASA/ ESA/ ASI Cassini-Huygens mission, have been extended by NASA by two years. The historic mission’s stunning discoveries and images have revolutionised our knowledge of Saturn and its moons.

The Cassini spacecraft tasted and sampled a surprising organic brew erupting in geyser-like fashion from Saturn's moon Enceladus during a close flyby on 12 March. Scientists are amazed that this tiny moon is so active, ‘hot’ and brimming with water vapour and organic chemicals.

Cassini has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan. The findings were made using radar measurements of Titan's rotation.

The Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This is the first time rings may have been found around a moon.

Gaps in the soup of high-energy particles near the orbits of two of Saturn’s tiny moons indicate that Saturn may be surrounded by undiscovered, near-invisible partial rings. A paper in the February issue of the journal Icarus suggests that the larger saturnian moons may not be the only ones contributing material to Saturn's ring system.

Despite the incredible diversity of Saturn’s icy moons, theirs is a story of great interaction. Some are pock-marked, some seemingly dirty, others pristine, one spongy, one two-faced, some still spewing with activity and some seeming to be captured from the far reaches of the solar system. Yet many of them have a common thread - black ‘stuff’ coating their surfaces.

Saturn’s orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new Cassini data. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes.

Space Shuttle Discovery landed in Cape Canaveral, Florida this evening at 19:01 CET (18:01 UT), completing one of the most complex assembly missions to the International Space Station to date, bringing back seven crew members, including ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

Early tomorrow morning there is a rare opportunity to see the Space Station flying in formation with Space Shuttle Discovery, homeward bound and due to land in Florida tomorrow evening.

After saying their farewells to the ISS crew yesterday evening, the STS-120 crew is preparing to undock from the International Space Station at 11:32 CET (10:32 UT) this morning. Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to touchdown in Florida at 19:02 CET (18:02 UT) on Wednesday.

Astronauts on board the International Space Station are preparing for a spacewalk to repair one of the Station's solar arrays. The fourth spacewalk of the STS-120 mission is scheduled to take place on Saturday.

The second amateur radio link-up between ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Italian students took place yesterday morning at around 8:33 CET (07:33 UT). This link-up continues the Amateur Radio on the ISS (ARISS) educational activity, which is part of the joint ESA-ASI programme of education activities for the Esperia mission.

“Good morning Mr Nespoli and nice to see you too Commander Melroy [in English in the original],” that was how Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic, started the call with the ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and STS-120 Commander Pamela Melroy, on board the International Space Station.

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and his fellow STS-120 crew members will stay in space for one extra day. Space Shuttle Discovery is now scheduled to land on 7 November.

The first amateur radio link-up between ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Italian students was established yesterday morning at around 9:30 CET (08:30 UT). On this occasion two classes participated: the IIS Deambrosis-Natta School, from Sestri Levante, near Genoa, and the Engineering Faculty of the University of L'Aquila.

Pupils from all over Germany joined ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter's ground-breaking Astrolab mission by taking part in an art contest. Over 500 excellent submissions made judging a challenge and showed that European students are interested in space and potential careers as scientists, engineers and explorers.

Can tiny and ubiquitous devices like Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) be of use for space applications? The answer is a definite yes. Recent tests have demonstrated current and future uses for PDAs on board the International Space Station.

The ISS, symbol of international cooperation, became a bit more international with ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter's long-duration mission. Today, Reiter met the press for the first time since returning from the International Space Station, at ESA's European Astronaut Centre (EAC), in Cologne, Germany.

ESA PR 03-2007. On Thursday 18 January, a press conference will take place at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany to give media a chance to meet the ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, of Germany, after completion of his mission following the landing of Space Shuttle Discovery on 22 December.

ESA PR 49-2006. Space Shuttle Discovery landed in Cape Canaveral, Florida tonight at 23:32 CET (22:32 UTC/GMT), completing one of the most complex assembly missions to the International Space Station to date, and bringing back ESA's two astronauts, Christer Fuglesang and Thomas Reiter.

ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter started his journey back to Earth yesterday evening when Space Shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station. Reiter spent a total of 166 days living on the orbiting outpost.

Early this morning, the installation of a new seat liner in the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft marked the end of ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter's period as a member of the Space Station's Expedition crew.

A French master chef has taken his meals to a new location this week. London? Tokyo? New York? Not far enough for Alain Ducasse Formation (ADF). Last Sunday their meals were served to the astronauts living on board the International Space Station.