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Week in images: 08-12 June 2026

Discover our week through the lens

Step inside the Columbus Control Centre near Munich, Germany, and discover what it takes to keep ESA's Columbus laboratory running—24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Columbus Flight Director Tristan Hermel takes us behind the scenes of mission control, where teams on the ground coordinate operations, support astronauts and work with international partners across the globe.

Get a glimpse of life behind the consoles as ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot carries out her Epsilon mission on board the Space Station.

This interview was recorded in January 2026.

Listen on all major podcast platforms.

Keep exploring with ESA Explores.

This radar image from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission captures Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, the surrounding countryside and the Rio de la Plata estuary.

Zoom in to explore this image at its full resolution.

This is a composite of three Sentinel-1 acquisitions taken in January, March and May this year, with each image assigned to a different colour channel (blue in January, green in March and red in May). As the environmental changes on the ground created a significant ‘backscatter’ reflection of the radar signal, they show up as bright shades that correspond to changes across the seasons.

On the right-hand side of the image, the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires is visible in light grey. The area has a population of more than 16 million people and lies at 25 m above sea level. The urban areas were largely unchanged between January and May, hence the lack of colour in this part of the image. Other towns, such as Luján and Junin, are also visible as smaller patches of grey west of the capital.

The blue areas correspond to surface changes such as choppy water, captured in January, which is mid-summer in Argentina. The rivers, deltas and open water are mainly coloured in either dark blue, purple or black. Winds and rough sea conditions during both January and May mean that the Rio de la Plata estuary, east of Buenos Aires, appears purple (a mix of blue in January and red in May). The Paraná river meanders through wetlands on the left of the image before flowing into the Rio de la Plata. The Uruguay river is also seen flowing from the north into the estuary.

To the west of Buenos Aires, agricultural fields and the Argentinean Pampas dominate the landscape. The green tint is due to significant ‘backscatter’ reflection of the radar signal in this area during the capture in March. Since this period is late summer in Argentina, it likely denotes growth of major crops such as soy and corn.

At the top of the image, a large area north of the Paraná river, in Entre Ríos province, appears in vivid red – the channel assigned to ground change in May, which is late Autumn in Argentina. It is likely that this is due to natural vegetation growth caused by seasonal rains during that period. This is when the areas of exposed grassland come back to life following the long, dry summers.

The second generation of Galileo, Europe’s satellite navigation constellation, is being built. These satellites will feature reconfigurable payloads, provide more robust and reliable positioning, navigation and timing, enable new services and add new capabilities to the constellation.

One of these capabilities, intersatellite links, will allow the satellites to communicate with one another in orbit. After going through extensive testing, the intersatellite link antennas are ready to be integrated into the satellites.

From strategic discussions on autonomy and resilience to an in-flight call with ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, ESA's second day at ILA Berlin International Airshow 2026 highlighted the wide-reaching value of space for Europe now and in the future.

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot joined ILA Berlin 2026 live from the International Space Station for a special in-flight conversation on life and work in orbit, Europe's ambitions in human spaceflight. The call featured ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration Daniel Neuenschwander, as well as ESA astronauts Alexander Gerst and Matthias Maurer, as well as Thomas Reiter, Head of the Space and Security Department in the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and former ESA Astronaut.

Access all ILA 2026 replays.