🪂 A drone carrying an unusual payload recently took to the skies above ESTEC, @esa.int’s technical centre in the Netherlands, marking the first test flight of a student-developed radar retroreflector technology 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
ESA Technology
@technology.esa.int
Follow the latest news, developments and new technologies from the European Space Agency's R&D Directorate
Proba-3 plays hide and seek 🔎 During a routine operation, one of our eclipse-maker satellites snapped a photo of the other… and our planet just happened to be there too! Can you spot Proba-3’s Coronagraph spacecraft in the foreground? 👀 Let us help you: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
📡 While traditional antennas rely on mechanical tilting to maintain contact with their target, phased array antennas enable satellites and ground terminals to communicate without any moving parts. They use specialised microchips to do that 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
Plato meets Maxwell Our terrestrial planet hunter Plato has recently completed a series of key tests inside the Maxwell Test Chamber at ESTEC, demonstrating that its electronic equipment is fit to work in space. 🔭 🧪 1/3
This firing marked the first commissioning test of @esa.int's new Chemical Propulsion Laboratory 🚀 The facility has been designed to give startups, researchers and industry faster access to propulsion testing for small satellites and emerging space technologies 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
Yesterday, the Artemis II crew visited ESTEC to meet the teams behind Orion’s European Service Module, which powered their historic journey around the Moon and back. 🌕🚀 🔗 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🌕🤝 Celebrating the transatlantic collaboration of humankind's return to deep space 👨🚀 Yesterday, the Artemis II astronauts visited @esa.int in the Netherlands to meet the teams behind the European Service Module that powered Orion around the Moon and back home 🚀. 🔗 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
Artemis II astronauts visit ESA
Yesterday, the four Artemis II astronauts visited ESA’s technical site in the Netherlands, where they met the team behind the European Service Module that powered their Orion spacecraft around the Moo...
esa.int
What happens to a miniature camera system under intense radiation? 📸 ☢️ A team from the University of Maribor tested their tiny camera – about the size of a 20 cent coin’s edge – inside a facility at CERN. Check out the result 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
🚀 Visit ESTEC, our technology centre in the Netherlands, on 26-27 September! ✨ Saturday 26 September - dedicated to visitors with a disability and their carers ✨ Sunday 27 September - general open day 🔗 Registration opens later this summer, keep an eye on our socials! Save the date! 👇
European Space Agency@esa.int · last mo.Save the date and join our Open Days 2026. 19 - 20 Sept. - ESA HQ, Paris 🇫🇷 25 Sept. - ESA ESRIN, Frascati 🇮🇹 26 - 27 Sept. - ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk 🇳🇱 2 Oct. - ESA ESOC, Darmstadt 🇩🇪 3 Oct. - ESA ESAC, Villanueva de la Cañada 🇪🇸 10 Oct. - ESA ECSAT, Harwell 🇬🇧 🔗 www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA...
✨Take a look at some of ESA’s recent stories in the latest #ESAimpact! Learn more about Europe’s role in Artemis II, dive into Juice’s encounter with comet 3I/ATLAS, explore recent launches including the first Celeste satellites and IRIDE additions, and more 👉 www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA...
One robotic arm to rule them all 🦾🧝♂️ www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
One robotic arm to rule them all
One robotic arm to rule them all
esa.int
⚠️ Warning: vacuum, extreme temperatures, radiation ⚠️ Any hardware going to space must be able to withstand such harsh conditions 👆 @esa.int’s researchers work hard on testing space-proof materials.💡 Read about the young talents among them: www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
The young minds space-proofing ESA’s missions
Assembling a spacecraft is a complicated process, and one that requires materials that are far from ordinary. To ensure the success of the European Space Agency’s missions, researchers in the Material...
esa.int
🪱 The inchworm might not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think of planetary exploration – but their elegant crawling inspired researchers to develop a new type of space robot! 🤖 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
Moving like an inchworm – a smarter robot for planetary exploration
The inchworm may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think of planetary explorers, but a recent ESA Discovery activity led by the University of Gothenburg looked to one of nature's mo...
esa.int
An ExoMars mini-capsule is back at @esa.int after surviving aerodynamic tests, free-flying at 4300 km per hour. Met a curious robot. Talked of Mars and the Rosalind Franklin rover... www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
Sensitive and sturdy
Sensitive and sturdy
esa.int
Walking on the Moon, operating a spacecraft, or floating aboard the International Space Station… from the comfort of your home planet? 🤔 @esa.int is using Extended Reality to do just that! 👓 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
#MayTheFourthBeWithYou! Speaking of Y-wings, today at ESA ESTEC test centre, engineers deploy Plato’s Y-wing solar panels. While Plato may not be carrying a hyperdrive or an astromech droid, it will ‘use the Flux’ to detect brightness dips caused by transiting exoplanets. Happy #StarWarsDay!
Dear bakers, the judges would like you to decontaminate a parachute that will land on Mars. 🪂🔴 On your marks, get set… bake! 1️⃣ Place your parachute into an oven 2️⃣ Set the oven to 125°C for ~50 hours 3️⃣ When the centre of the parachute reaches 125°C, continue to bake for 36 hours
When you rub a balloon on your hair, electrostatic forces make the two stick together🎈 🫴 A new device by the Italian start-up Adaptronics works on a similar principle to capture objects in space: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
🌕 Electronics from moondust: a new ESA Discovery project led by the Danish Technological Institute is studying how lunar soil could be transformed into printable circuits, enabling in‑situ repair and manufacturing on the Moon. 🧪🔭 🔗 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
🛰️ @esa.int’s Navigation Lab at ESTEC, the agency’s technical centre, received the first successful transmission of a navigation signal from a European satellite in low Earth orbit! It came from @navigation.esa.int’s Celeste mission 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
The first Proba-3 science results are in! ☀️🏃♀️➡️🏃♀️➡️🏃♀️➡️ Close to the Sun, it spotted solar wind moving 3–4 times faster than expected Curious? 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @orb-ksb.bsky.social @technology.esa.int
First Proba-3 science: surprisingly speedy solar wind
Since July 2025, the European Space Agency’s pair of Proba-3 satellites has already created 57 artificial solar eclipses. So far, the mission has collected more than 250&...
esa.int
Congratulations @exploration.esa.int! 🌒🚀 Europe is proud to have enabled #Artemis II with the European Service Module - delivering propulsion, power and life support for Orion and its crew. Built by European industry and monitored 24/7 by ESA teams, the ESM is a strong example of ESA technologies.
ESA Exploration@exploration.esa.int · 4mo agoThanks for the shout-out Reid! Safe travels from your European friends at @esa.int and Airbus 💞
The task of an attitude control system is to make sure a spacecraft points exactly where it needs to 🛰️🫵 In the case of CubeSpec, that target will be a star ✨ Learn more about how we make sure this pointing instrument is as accurate as possible 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
Graphene lights the way. Literally. Watch how aerogel cubes made of graphene react to light in microgravity. This innovative material could revolutionise propulsion beyond Earth. 🚀 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🤏 Hidden inside this tiny chip developed by IMST is an innovation that enables the deployment of next‑generation satellites carrying either digital communications, Earth observation, or navigation payloads 🛰️🌏🧭 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
ETO and ESA have launched a collaboration on cost estimation for the Einstein Telescope, formalised in January 2026. A meeting at ESTEC on 24 March marked its strategic start. Read the interview: shorturl.at/rjnUo #EinsteinTelescope #ESA @technology.esa.int
💼 ESA recruits: from mechanical engineering to life sciences, @esa.int will publish more than 400 job opportunities in 2026! Find out more about who we are looking for in the latest newsletter 👇 www.linkedin.com/pulse/esa-re...
ESA recruits: who are we looking for?
At ESA, we are always looking for talented professionals to contribute to our inspiring space missions. At the 2025 Ministerial Council in Bremen, European ministers responsible for research and tech...
linkedin.com
👩🏾🚀 Retired NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps visited ESTEC, @esa.int’s technical centre in the Netherlands! Jeanette supported many ESA projects during her time at the International Space Station: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
Some satellite navigation antennas offer protection from the most common types of interference, but are bulky and expensive. PhD researcher at ESA’s Navigation Laboratory explored a simpler and cheaper alternative: a football-sized, 3D-printed lens antenna ⚽📡 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
Scientists have been exploring how GPS and Galileo reflected signals can help monitor sea ice, using innovative data from @spire.com. A promising new way to observe our rapidly changing polar regions: 🔗 earth.esa.int/eogateway/su...
Reflected satellite signals unlock new insights into Arctic sea ice - Earth Online
Research drawing on novel data from Spire Global has enabled the generation of Arctic-wide sea ice maps, marking a major step forward for detecting change with navigation signals.
earth.esa.int