The Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew lifts off to the International Space Station atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on 25 June at 02:31 EDT, local time (07:31 BST/08:31 CEST).

ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski travels to his new home in space in the Dragon spacecraft. Sławosz is part of Axiom Mission 4 alongside Peggy Whitson (USA), Shubhanshu Shukla (India) and Tibor Kapu (Hungary).

During their journey on the Dragon spacecraft to the orbital outpost Sławosz and Tibor will serve as mission specialists, Shubhanshu will be the crew’s pilot and Peggy will

ESA’s week-long Living Planet Symposium is in full swing in Vienna, Austria, drawing scientists and researchers from around the world. This flagship event focuses on the latest breakthroughs in Earth science and highlights the advanced space technologies used to observe and understand our changing planet. Throughout the week, we’ll be covering the bigger stories in depth, but we’re also sharing some daily snapshots of other significant happenings. 

The major highlight of today was the signing of a landmark agreement between ESA and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. 

Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, but its seismic nature is part of a much broader geological history.

In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists, supported by an ESA-funded project, have uncovered the underlying forces that forged the North Atlantic’s fiery volcanic past – shedding light on the vast geological region that spans from Greenland to western Europe, which is home to iconic natural wonders like the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. 

ESA’s week-long Living Planet Symposium kicked off today in Vienna, Austria, bringing together scientists and researchers from around the globe. Throughout the week, we’ll be covering the bigger stories in depth, such as the first images from ESA’s Biomass mission published earlier today – but we’re also sharing some daily snapshots of other significant happenings.

So, today’s few ‘extras’ include Sentinel-2 marking 10 years in orbit, ESA selects Telespazio to run the ground segment for the TRUTHS mission and listen to EarthCARE data transformed into a dragon’s song for peace.

Satellite observations reveal that the extent of sea ice in the Arctic is once again hovering near record lows for this time of year – underscoring a troubling and persistent trend. This issue is a key topic at ESA’s Living Planet Symposium in Vienna, where scientists are emphasising the critical role that ESA’s Climate Change Initiative Sea Ice Project and CryoSat mission have had in helping to underpin these findings.

Looking ahead, the ability to monitor polar sea ice is in safe hands, as the development of the new CRISTAL mission is progressing well