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.

Our next space science mission is about to begin its space adventure.

After more than 10 years of designing, developing, building and testing, Smile is now ready for action.

Its ride to space will be a Vega-C rocket, departing from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 9 April. The rocket will drop Smile off in a circular orbit 700 km above Earth’s surface.

Smile will then fire its own engines 11 times, taking itself higher and higher above the North Pole. From there, it will use X-ray and ultraviolet vision to watch how Earth defends itself from streams of particles

Week in images: 04-08 May 2026

Discover our week through the lens

How can Earth observation data play a more central role in guiding future decisions on the environment? This was one of the questions asked at an ESA-hosted event that brought together leaders from Earth observation science with the global statistics community.