A large boulder, a treacherous crater or a gust of wind could jeopardise a smooth landing on Mars. Before the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission launches for the Red Planet in 2028, a replica of the landing platform went through worst-case touchdown conditions – and survived.    

Thinking of every possible landing scenario, European engineers dropped a full-scale model onto a sled to test its stability in case the spacecraft touched down at an angle. A magnetic sledge released the lander at varying speeds – up to four metres per second –on a platform tilted at 20 degrees.  

In every test, the four legs of the descent module absorbed the impact.  

These sled-based tests were the final series of the landing platform drop test campaign conducted at the ALTEC facilities in Turin, Italy.   

“This campaign proves how robust the ExoMars landing system is. The tests delivered critical

Week in images: 11-15 May 2026

Discover our week through the lens

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

The Expedition 74 crew on the International Space Station turned into meteor chasers as Earth passed through a cloud of dust and small debris left behind by comet Thatcher in 1861.  

Each year in mid-April, as some of these fragments enter Earth’s atmosphere, heating up and leaving a bright trail behind them, humankind looks up – or down, in the case of the Station’s crew – to catch of glimpse of these shooting stars.  

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot set up a camera to automatically record thousands of images in the hope of catching a shooting star, an elusive event that often

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 Materials, Environments and Contamination Control Section investigate and test materials to ensure they will survive the harsh environment of space. The section is supported by many young researchers, who bring fresh and innovative ideas.

Turning the vast amounts of data collected by Earth observation satellites into useful information, exactly when it is needed, is a real challenge – especially during natural disasters or emergency situations. One year after the launch of the OneWeb Copernicus Data Hub project, Austrian Earth‑observation services provider GeoVille, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Eutelsat, is showing how this can be achieved in practice.

This month, ESA’s Mars Express takes us to Shalbatana Vallis: a fascinating martian valley surrounded by signs of water, lava, craters and chaos.