Scientists at the European Space Agency are trying to extract oxygen from something very close to lunar soil. The ESA team can't try their technique on actual lunar soil samples: the amounts brought back are tiny and too valuable. Instead, the boffins have constructed a chemical equivalent, and are investigating, at a new …

The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe, the farthest lander to ever make it in the outer solar system, spun wildly in the opposite direction as expected as it descended onto one of Saturn’s moons. Now, scientists have finally figured out what went wrong, 15 years after the probe’s landing. The circular device, shaped like a …

The European Space Agency (ESA) has commissioned a mission to remove an item of debris from orbit as the space around Earth gets progressively more cluttered. Trumpeting a "world's first", ESA is procuring the mission as a service contract from a consortium led by Swiss startup ClearSpace. Launch is planned for 2025 and the …

The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA astronauts have concluded the third, and arguably most challenging, of the four spacewalks required to replace the cooling system of the International Space Station's (ISS) Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) The spacewalk, which saw Expedition 61 Commander, ESA's Luca Parmitano, and NASA …

ESA bigwigs were cock-a-hoop today as the agency's Ministerial Council passed a bonzer budget, with the UK, Germany, Italy and France splashing the most cash. The 10 per cent rise was, according to ESA, the first significant boost in funding in 25 years. Total subscriptions (PDF) from the states stood at €14.4bn, with Germany …

Key details about the failure of Europe's Galileo satellite system over the summer have started to emerge – and it's not pretty. While one key official has sought to blame a single individual for the system going dark, insiders warn that organizational chaos, excessive secrecy and some unusual self-regulation is as much to …

RoundupLast week the International Space Station celebrated its first all-woman spacewalk, ESA politely asked NASA for some help with parachutes and boffins said "goodnight, sweet prince" to the last Van Allen Probe. From me to BCDU After a postponement due to suit sizes, which said more about the parlous state of NASA's spacewalking …

ESTECThe European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands, opened its doors to the public last weekend, and The Register braved the rain to grill top brass on spaceships, partnerships and the "B" word. The annual event, which this year saw 9,159 visitors crawl over the European Space Agency's (ESA) …

Elon Musk's SpaceX has claimed that a mysterious comms "bug" was what stopped it from moving its satellites away from an orbital collision course. The European Space Agency carried out a "collision avoidance manoeuvre" earlier this week when it realised one of its satellites was on course to potentially bump into a flock of …

RoundupAs NASA nervously eyed Hurricane Dorian, Roscosmos finally persuaded Soyuz MS-14 to dock with the ISS and India's Chandrayaan-2 enjoyed an amicable separation above the Moon. India: Ready for powered descent? Following a sequence of successful manoeuvres in Lunar orbit, India's Vikram lander earlier today separated from the …

European Space Agency and Roscosmos's 2020 ExoMars launch is in jeopardy after a failed parachute test. The test was focused on the largest of the four parachutes, a predecessor of which had suffered a tear the last time around. Things went awry once more and an issue "similar to the previous test" was observed. Radial tears …

The European Space Agency (ESA) unveiled an experiment it hopes will overcome the problems that prevent encrypted communications between the Earth and orbiting spacecraft. The Cryptographic ICE Cube, launched into orbit in April as part of the NG-11 mission, has been installed on the ISS' Columbus laboratory and is currently …

PicPanic-stricken headlines claiming Earth will be slammed by an asteroid on September 9 this year should be ignored, the European Space Agency (ESA) assures us. The supposedly planet-menacing 100-foot-(30-metre)-diameter space rock, dubbed 2006 QV89, was discovered in August 2006. Following observations over ten days back then, …

The European Space Agency is embarking on a new mission to a faraway comet floating on the outer edges of the Solar System that is yet to be discovered. The mission dubbed "Comet Interceptor" was chosen as part of ESA's Cosmic Vision programme, a series of long term projects launching between 2015 and 2025. Three spacecraft …

RoundupPresidential frothing over NASA's direction was swiftly wiped from the walls last week while ESA continued quietly progressing towards new rockets and vehicles. ESA Rider While space fandom continues to breathlessly anticipate Boeing and SpaceX's latest and greatest reusable capsule, ESA has continued to plough its own furrow …

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft caught a massive whiff of methane from orbit, confirming an earlier gas detection on the Red Planet by America's Curiosity rover. Signs of the hydrocarbon molecule rouses excitement because there is a possibility that it may be produced by biological processes, and therefore …

Britain's Reaction Engines has been given the greenlight to press ahead with an ambitious testing programme for its SABRE air-breathing rocket engine. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the UK Space Agency (UKSA) took a look at the preliminary design for the engine core of the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) …

NASA and the European Space Agency have teamed up to attempt to answer what seems like an impossible question: what is the mass of the Milky Way? The topic has been bugging scientists for a while, and it's a useful figure to know because it's needed in simulations of galaxies and of our galaxy within the universe. Previous …