Registrations are now open for the European Space Agency’s Living Planet Symposium (LPS) – one of the largest Earth observation conferences in the world. The event will take place on 23–27 June 2025 in Vienna, Austria.

With the launch of ESA’s Biomass satellite scheduled for 29 April, preparations at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, have reached a key milestone. The satellite has now been sealed inside the protective fairing of the Vega-C rocket – now hidden from view, the satellite is almost ready for its journey into space.

Video: 00:00:53 Meet Biomass – ESA’s next Earth Explorer mission to launch. Carrying the first P-band synthetic aperture radar in space, this new mission is set to deliver crucial information about the state of our forests and how they are changing, and to further our knowledge of the role forests play in the carbon cycle.

An ESA-funded study that used satellite data to define biodiversity zones and shipping lanes in the Atlantic Ocean suggests it is possible to protect 30% of ocean habitats, with little impact on fishing and shipping.

Media advisory Earth Explorer Biomass satellite launch media events

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows part of one of the world’s natural wonders – the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea off the east coast of Queensland, Australia.

Marking a major milestone in the preparation of ESA’s Biomass satellite for its scheduled 29 April liftoff, experts have completed the critical and hazardous process of fuelling the satellite.

The first of the new generation of MetOp satellites, MetOp-SG Satellite-A, together with the instrument for the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission, are now ready to be shipped to their launch site. But before the last leg of their terrestrial journey, they were on display to the media at Airbus’s facilities in Toulouse, France.

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission shows us what is left of the Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake in the world.

OBSERVER: Six reasons not to miss EU Space Days 2025 in Gdańsk evan Thu, 03/04/2025 – 16:21 EU Space Days 2025 lands in the Polish coastal city of Gdańsk on 27-28 May, bringing together the European space ecosystem for two days of high-level discussions, strategic insights, and the exploration of new cross-sector partnerships. Organised by…