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Funding boost unlocks future Space Science Programme
In its 50th anniversary year, European Space Agency (ESA) Member States have recommitted to space science. The Science Programme obtained a historic budget increase last week at the Ministerial Conference held in Bremen. This will enable some of the most ambitious missions ever and bolster European leadership in space science. Learn more about what were the priorities for the ESA Science Directorate at the Ministerial Conference and what this funding boost means for the future of the Science Programme.
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Proba-3 1st Guest Investigator Announcement of Opportunity - advance notice
The 1st Proba-3 Guest Investigator Announcement of Opportunity (AO) is expected to be issued soon. It will solicit applications by scientists from ESA Member States to augment the scientific return of the ASPIICS instrument of ESA’s Proba-3 mission. Up to five Guest Investigators will be selected to propose their own ASPIICS science operations programmes to be executed in 2026. The Guest Investigators will have an active role in operations planning and they will have immediate access to all data from their observation campaign, after reception on the ground.
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Einstein Probe Science Archive (EPSA) open - pre-announcement
After the first 1.5 years of operations, the Einstein Probe mission, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with ESA and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, will soon publicly release the first batch of science data, for which the proprietary period has expired.
First, only data for the mission’s Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) will be available, with Wide Field X-ray Telescope (WXT) data expected for early 2026.
All data will be available via the archive interface operated at NAOC/NADC. ESA will operate a mirror archive for level 2 and 3 science data.
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Cluster 1 spacecraft atmospheric re-entry
The Cluster 1 spacecraft (dubbed Rumba) re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on 22 October 2025 at 18:59:19 UTC. The re-entry took place over a remote corner of the Pacific Ocean, away from any inhabited areas.
The spacecraft survived its last perigee (two days before re-entry) while becoming hot, due to air drag, at an altitude of 109 km. Although the spacecraft suffered an anomaly, at that time, it could be fully recovered by ESA’s flight control team. Its orbit and re-entry location could then be precisely predicted. The magnetometer instrument (FGM) could be switched-on during the last orbit and Cluster 1 made its final measurements in the tail of the magnetosphere.
This re-entry followed the re-entry of Cluster 2 (Salsa) on 8 September 2024. The last two spacecraft (Samba and Tango) will re-enter on 31st August and 1st September 2026.
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Recent science highlights:
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Upcoming ESA conferences:
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Ariel Open Conference 2026: Science, Mission & Community
17-19 March 2026, ESA/ECSAT, Harwell Campus, Didcot, UK, hosted at the ESA Magali Vaissiere Conference Centre
The Ariel Mission Consortium and ESA Ariel Science Team are delighted to invite the international scientific community to attend and present at the Ariel Open Conference 2026, at the ESA Magali Vaissiere Conference Centre, UK. The conference will provide a summary of Ariel’s science, instruments and operations and present the activities that the Ariel team has planned to engage the science community.
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Science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes VIII: Enriching the Universe: From Primordial Nucleosynthesis to Exoplanet Atmospheres
13-16 April 2026, Vienna, Austria, and online
This is the latest in the series of ESA conferences, in collaboration with STScI, to highlight the scientific impact of the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. The conference will showcase the latest Hubble and Webb studies of chemical evolution and nucleosynthesis, from understanding the chemistry of nearby protoplanetary disks and planetary atmospheres, to early enrichment by the first galaxies and stars.
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The X-ray Universe 2026
8-11 June 2026, Elche, Spain
This conference is the seventh meeting in the "The X-ray Universe" series, aimed at encompassing a broad range of high-energy astrophysics topics, from solar system studies to cosmology. It will provide a showcase for results and discoveries from XMM-Newton and other missions, discussing as well the scientific potential of future missions and the evolution of the scientific analysis landscape.
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The European Space Agency
