Live coverage: Vega rocket launches with LISA Pathfinder

Josef Aschbacher, head of ESA’s Earth observation programs, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about the importance of the Sentinel 5P satellite mission designed for air quality measurements from space, and discussed increasing data usage from Europe’s Copernicus environmental network, and plans to expand the flagship Earth observation fleet.

A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a rare glimpse of a massive star 15,000 light-years away shedding a halo of gas and dust, seeding the cosmos with elements necessary for forming other stars, planets, and the building blocks of life.

Two U.S.-built Intelsat communications satellites have hitched on to an Ariane 5 rocket for launch from French Guiana next week, the first time the storied company has put two of its spacecraft on the same booster.