ESA’s ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission is set to launch in 2028, and its rover will search for past as well as present life on the Red Planet. Thanks to its drill and scientific instruments, it will be the first rover to reach a depth of up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) deep below the surface, acquiring samples that have been shielded from surface radiation and extreme temperatures.
The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the Euclid Space Telescope on July 1st, and today, it provides us with its first image: the Horsehead Nebula. Located 1,375 light-years from Earth, Horsehead is known for the dark cloud shaped like a horse’s head, part of the constellation Orion.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope from Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida at 17:12 CEST on July 1. This mission aims to study the dark universe, or more specifically dark matter and dark energy. To date, researchers have not yet been able to detect either of them directly, only inferring their presence from the effects they have on the universe at large.
ESA’s European Robotic Arm (ERA) has been loaded onto the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) by Airbus space engineers and it’s now ready for its flight to the International Space Station (ISS). It will take one-week to reach the ISS, where it will service the Russian segment of the space station. Measuring 11.3 meters long, the symmetrical, two-handed intelligent robot arm can ‘walk’ around the exterior of the ISS, hand-over-hand from one fixed base-point to another.