ESA Space Science

On 10–11 June, representatives from European Space Agency (ESA) Member States met in Tenerife to make far-reaching decisions about the future of ESA’s Science Programme. Their decisions to extend current missions and adopt the next ‘fast-class’ mission, Arrakihs, underscores European leadership in, and long-term commitment to, space science.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Science Programme Committee has adopted the Arrakihs mission. Planned for launch by the end of 2030, Arrakihs will capture the faint light from nearby galaxy haloes. By seeing the unseen, Arrakihs will dig up cosmic history and reveal how galaxies like our own form and evolve.  

Smile successfully launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 19 May 2026.

This timelapse captures the excitement and precision of launch operations as the spacecraft begins its journey to study the connection between the Sun and Earth.

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is an international space science mission designed to investigate how the solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetosphere. By observing these dynamic processes from space, Smile will help scientists better understand space weather and its effects on our planet's magnetic environment.

Using the unprecedented imaging and spectroscopic power of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have mapped the motion and composition of gas orbiting a black hole in the centre of Abell2744-QSO1, a tiny galaxy more than 13 billion light-years away. The results suggest that the 50-million-solar-mass black hole predates its host galaxy, possibly forming within the first second of the Big Bang, and must have been immense from the start.

The launch of the 4DSpace-Daedalus mission in Norway is the latest success supported by Prodex, a European Space Agency (ESA) programme which enables highly skilled research institutes to partake in European space science activities and missions.

Follow the total solar eclipse with the European Space Agency (ESA), in person or online. 

ESA’s Smile satellite launched aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on at 04:52 BST / 05:52 CEST (00:52 local time) on 19 May 2026.

Smile flew to space on Vega-C flight VV29. At 35 m tall, a Vega-C weighs 210 tonnes on the launch pad and the rocket used three solid-propellant-powered stages to take Smile to orbit before the fourth liquid-propellant stage took over for a precise drop-off around Earth.Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Smile will use four science instruments to study how Earth responds to the solar wind from the Sun. In doing so, Smile will improve our understanding of solar storms, geomagnetic storms and the science of space weather.

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Before Smile can begin studying how Earth responds to the streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun, the spacecraft had to complete an extraordinary journey here on Earth.

Follow the mission through its final launch preparations at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, from fuelling and encapsulation inside its protective fairing, to meeting the rest of the Vega-C rocket that will take it to space.

Smile is flying to space on Vega-C flight VV29. At 35 m tall, Vega-C weighs 210 tonnes on the launch pad and the rocket will take Smile to orbit with three solid-propellant-powered stages before the fourth liquid-propellant stage takes over for a precise drop-off around Earth.

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a joint European-Chinese mission to study the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic environment from a unique highly elliptical orbit. During the next three years, it will go high above the North Pole every two days to collect X-ray and ultraviolet images of Earth’s magnetic shield and the northern lights.

Our next space science mission is about to begin its space adventure.

After more than 10 years of designing, developing, building and testing, Smile is now ready for action.

Its ride to space will be a Vega-C rocket, departing from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 19 May. The rocket will drop Smile off in a circular orbit 700 km above Earth’s surface.

Smile will then fire its own engines 11 times, taking itself higher and higher above the North Pole. From there, it will use X-ray and ultraviolet vision to watch how Earth defends itself from streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun. Nobody has ever seen Earth’s magnetic shield like this before.

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Learn more about Smile.

The European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are joining hands to uncover how Earth defends itself against dangerous particles and radiation from the Sun.

It’s the first time we will have images and videos of what happens when this solar wind crashes into our magnetic field. Smile will witness this interaction in action, using four onboard instruments to watch the drama unfold.

Life can only exist as we know it when nestled safe inside this giant magnetic bubble surrounding our planet. By imaging the bubble as a whole for the first time, Smile will help us build up the fundamental understanding that space weather forecasting will ultimately depend on.

Learn more about Smile.