Q&A with Rolf de Groot, head of ESA’s robotic exploration office

The Hubble Space Telescope turned toward Jupiter last month, capturing colorful views of the giant planet and its icy moon Europa more than 400 million miles from Earth.

With a second radar surveillance satellite already returning images less than three days after launch, managers in charge of Europe’s growing fleet of Sentinel environment-monitoring spacecraft will grapple with an immense ‘Big Data’ challenge as the multibillion-dollar program enters a new phase.

Launch managers in French Guiana have delayed liftoff of a European gravitational probe pathfinder at least one day to study out-of-bounds thermal readings from the upper stage of its Vega rocket booster, officials said Tuesday.