As part of a scientific collaboration with the Mexican Space Agency and other Mexican scientific public entities, ESA has combined images from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission to produce a detailed view of the different types of vegetation growing across the entire country.
From spacecraft preparations through to liftoff from Europe’s Spaceport, watch highlights of the BepiColombo launch
Watch BepiColombo lift off into space, with launch build-up and commentary from mission experts
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury blasted off on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou at 01:45:28 GMT on 20 October on its exciting mission to study the mysteries of the Solar System’s innermost planet.
Watch BepiColombo launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5 rocket
BepiColombo lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5 rocket at 01:45 GMT
BepiColombo at the launch pad ahead of its scheduled liftoff to Mercury at 01:45 GMT on Saturday
This glittering ball of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1898, which lies toward the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Imagine you are on Mars and you stumble upon an interesting rock. The colours, the shape of the crystals and the place where you find it all tell you: there is more to it than meets the eye. Tool in hand, you analyse how light scatters through it. Seconds later you read the following description on the screen:
Operations image of the week: After years of planning and countless hours of simulations, teams at ESA’s mission control are ready to take flight on the long and complex journey to Mercury
On Oct. 18, 1989, space shuttle Atlantis deployed NASA’s Galileo spacecraft six hours, 30 minutes into the STS-34 mission. Galileo arrived at Jupiter in December, 1995 and spent eight years in orbit around the gas giant, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet.
Teams responsible for flying the bold BepiColombo mission to Mercury today completed the last major step in preparation for Saturday’s liftoff — the final pre-launch ‘dress rehearsal’ at ESA’s ESOC control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
