ESApod, audio and video from space

Bernardo Patti, ESA's project manager for the Columbus laboratory - one of Europe's main contributions to the International Space Station - talks about the module's transatlantic journey from Bremen,…

For over five years, astronauts from around the world have been living and working together 400 kilometres above the Earth on board the biggest outpost ever built in space. The International Space St…

Geology, evolution and even the age of rocky planets and moons can be traced down by the study of impact craters - planetary scars left by the bombardment of asteroids and comets.

ESApod audio progra…

This year's ISD2006 brings together more than 700 representatives from small and medium enterprises (SMEs), system integrators, institutions, product suppliers and service providers to allow them to …

Since the beginning of this year, a new name appears in the list of known asteroids that inhabit our Solar System; the name is 'ESA', which stands for 'European Space Agency'.

ESApod audio programme

ESA is participating at ILA together with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), BDLI and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in a special pavilion within the "International Spac…

The atmosphere took centre stage at a five-day conference held by ESA in Frascati, Italy, with 250 scientists presenting and comparing results from ongoing atmospheric research from ESA's Envisat sat…

Explorer Marc Cornelissen describes the challenges of an Arctic expedition from Greenland's ice cap. With him are six students from the Climate Change College helping with ESA's CryoSat-2 validation …

As Venus Express arrives at its namesake destination, long-time ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier discusses the enigmatic planet and muses on its beauty and fascinating planetary evolution.

ESApod audio…

Confirmation that Venus Express had successfully entered orbit came from ESOC, ESA's Space Operations Centre, in Germany, today at 11:12 CEST. After a tense engine burn and blackout while the spacecr…

ESAPod goes to the heart of Venus Express and meets with a veteran ESA operations engineer in the mission control centre. The large, well-equipped Main Control Room enables flight controllers to work…

Venus Express is being telecommanded via the 35-meter deep-space station in Cebreros, Spain, the newest station to join ESA's global ESTRACK network. Cebreros communicates at X-band Gigaherz radio fr…

Navigating Venus Express is a devilishly difficult problem as computations must take into account all sources of gravity working on the spacecraft. ESA scientists use good old-fashioned classical phy…

"If something goes wrong, it could either fly by Venus or hit the planet." The Venus Express Project Manager, Don McCoy, recently spoke to ESAPod on the intense preparations for the critical April 11…

Gathering data from above Venus' thick atmosphere is very difficult. A remarkable series of spectral windows allow Venus Express instruments to 'see' through to the surface. The existence of these sp…

Earth's surface has been renewed over the eons by plate tectonics, volcanism and other processes. But Venus does not appear to have tectonic plate activity. What is certain is that the surface of Ven…

In Part 5 of ESApod's special Venus Express series, we speak with Dr Gerhard Schwehm about the instruments onboard Venus Express and how scientific data can be gathered by planetary missions remotely…

Venus suffers from a runaway Greenhouse Effect responsible for transforming Earth's near-twin into one of the Solar System's most hellish places. Venus Express aims to unlock the mysteries behind thi…

In Part 2 of ESApod's special Venus Express series, we cover the Venus Amateur Observing Project, a unique proposal to engage amateur astronomers in observing Venus. The aim is to help scientists val…

Venus, the 'Morning Star', is our closest planetary neighbour. Similar to Earth in size and mass, scientists once thought it should be a lot like our planet. Instead, Venus is entirely different, hid…