The European Space Agency’s FLEX Earth Explorer satellite and the Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellite have been launched together aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, marking a new milestone in Europe’s Earth Observation Programmes.

Strap yourself in for an out-of- this-world journey as the European Astro Pi Challenge 2026/2027 launches today, 14 September 2026.

Video: 00:06:30 Plants may look still and silent, but every leaf is constantly responding to its environment. As plants photosynthesise, they emit an incredibly faint glow called fluorescence. Invisible to our eyes, this signal can reveal how plants are using sunlight and how they respond to heat, drought, pests and other environmental stresses. ESA’s Fluorescence…

Two Earth observation satellites – ESA’s Fluorescence Explorer (FLEX) satellite, and the third satellite for the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission – are encapsulated inside the nose cone of a Vega-C launcher and are awaiting liftoff at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

On 15 September, two spacecraft will leave Earth together aboard the same launcher from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou: FLEX, ESA’s photosynthesis mission, and Sentinel-3C, Copernicus’ newest satellite monitoring Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere. At ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), two independent mission teams are preparing to operate the spacecraft in parallel in a…

Get ready to launch your students on an inspiring adventure where space exploration meets health, fitness, and nutrition. By joining the Mission X 2026–2027 school project, your class will train like real astronauts through a dynamic mix of physical activity and scientific discovery.

If you had to describe a plant, the first thing you might start with is its colour – and the first colour that usually comes to mind, is green. And indeed, by and large, plants appear green to our eyes because they contain chlorophyll, which absorbs blue and red light much more strongly than green…

From 15 to 22 August 2026, students, engineers and programme partners worked through a compact campaign focused on preparing, integrating and launching the experiments.

The European Space Agency’s FLEX satellite and the Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellite are scheduled to launch together aboard a Vega-C rocket on 15 September at 03:21 CEST (14 September at 22:21 local time). Watch the VV30 launch live from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, with coverage starting at 02:50 CEST.