ESA’s week-long Living Planet Symposium in Austria is over halfway through, gathering thousands of attendees to explore the latest breakthroughs in Earth science and space technologies. In addition to in-depth coverage on specific themes from the symposium, we also bring you the following 'extras’: six New Space companies formally join Copernicus, ESA and UN-Habitat strengthen ties, and ESA and JAXA sign a Framework Agreement on climate collaboration.  

German launch vehicle startup Isar Aerospace has raised 150 million euros ($174 million) in the form of a convertible bond from an American investor.

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured compelling evidence of a planet with a mass similar to Saturn orbiting the young nearby star TWA 7.

If confirmed, this would represent Webb’s first direct image discovery of a planet, and the lightest planet ever seen with this technique.

ESA is leading efforts to embed Earth observation data into more effective and resilient development financing. It is doing so in partnership with international financial institutions through its Global Development Assistance (GDA) programme. This topic was discussed today at ESA’s Living Planet Symposium.

Lux Aeterna has emerged from stealth with $4 million in pre-seed funding to develop a fully reusable satellite slated to launch in 2027, equipped with a heat shield and parachute for safe atmospheric reentry and landing.

These are the highlights of the launch on Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) of ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland to the International Space Station. The mission is called Ignis.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on 25 June 2025.

Sławosz is mission specialist on the Dragon spacecraft. The other crew members are Shubhanshu Shukla from India and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. They fly under the command of Peggy Whitson from USA.

Sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development

The company developed an AI analytics platform that aggregates data from Maxar's own satellites as well as partner constellations