ESA Kids

Lee has written for the European Space Agency's Kids website since 2015. To date he has produced more than 120 news stories for eager young minds.

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Introducing EIRSAT-1, Ireland’s first ever satellite

Have you ever dreamed of designing your own satellite to conduct science experiments in space? You may think that only scientists with many years of experience can do this, but ESA Academy’s Fly Your Satellite! programme gives university students – your ‘big sisters and brothers’ - the chance to put their own craft into space – a dream come true!

A student team from University College Dublin in Ireland have been part of Fly Your Satellite! for the past six years. They have designed and built th
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Astronomers spot carbon on the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa!

Astronomers spot carbon on the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa!

Earth is a haven for life, but could other worlds in our Solar System be home to simple organisms? We have known for a long time that Jupiter’s moon Europa has an ocean of salty water and a rocky seafloor. However, this strange ocean is hidden under a thick icy crust, so whether it contains any of the ingredients needed for life has been a mystery – until now!

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope to study Europa h
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ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen’s Huginn mission is now underway

26 August 2023 was a very special day for ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen! Sat inside a Crew Dragon spacecraft called Endurance, he was blasted into space on a powerful Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. His destination: the International Space Station!

Andreas was not alone on this exciting journey. Beside him in the Crew Dragon were three other members of Crew-7: NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli, JAXA’s Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos’ Konstantin Borisov. The pressure was on
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Blast off for ESA’s final ever Ariane 5 rocket launch

Blast off for ESA’s final ever Ariane 5 rocket launch

5 July 2023 is a date to remember for space fans, as it was the last launch of an amazing ESA Ariane 5 rocket! Blasting off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, the rocket’s journey took 33 minutes. Its mission was to carry the German aerospace agency DLR’s Heinrich Hertz experimental communications satellite, and the French communications satellite Syracuse 4b, into their planned orbits.

Ariane 5 rockets have an excellent success reco
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Farewell to Aeolus, ESA's wind satellite

ESA’s Aeolus satellite has been orbiting Earth for nearly five years. Its mission: test new technologies, studying the winds around our planet and sending data to meteorologists, improving weather forecasts for the entire planet!

Aeolus was a pioneering satellite able to measure global winds from space using a laser. The data collected were able to reach weather forecasters within three hours, making it a brilliant tool for major weather forecasting services across the world including the Europ
ESA Kids •

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen prepares to take command of the International Space Station

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen prepares to take command of the International Space Station

The International Space Station is a high-tech science laboratory that orbits in space, 400km above Earth’s surface. Soon it will have a new commander! ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen is set to blast off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre on 15 August 2023 before piloting a Crew Dragon craft all the way to the International Space Station. Flying with him will be Crew-7: NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, JAXA a
ESA Kids •

ESA’s Euclid mission will tackle some of science’s biggest mysteries

ESA’s Euclid mission will tackle some of science’s biggest mysteries

Excitement is building over the upcoming launch of ESA’s Euclid mission. This special space telescope is planned to blast off on 1 July, onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA. After launch, it will take Euclid around four weeks to reach its destination, 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. Its instruments will then be turned on and thoroughly tested for two months, before Euclid
ESA Kids •

The James Webb Space Telescope reveals the cosmos like never before

The James Webb Space Telescope reveals the cosmos like never before

The James Webb Space Telescope – or Webb for short – is a high-tech observatory in space! Webb launched into orbit at the end of 2021, and now observes the universe in infrared light from its new home almost 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth. This allows Webb to see details that are impossible to spot with our own eyes when using regular telescopes on Earth. Built and operated by NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency, W
ESA Kids •

New weather satellite takes spectacular photos of planet Earth

Europe’s latest weather satellite is called the Meteosat Third Generation Imager (MTG-I1 for short), and it has just taken its first photo of Earth. Despite orbiting 36,000 km above our planet, the close-up detail it has obtained is incredible!

New technology means that the instruments aboard MTG-I1 can take images with much higher resolution – giving more detail – and more frequently than previous Meteosats. Sand and sediment in the waters around Italy are visible, as well as dust or smog bein
ESA Kids •

Lift-off for ESA’s JUICE mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moons!

On 14 April 2023, a powerful Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. It was carrying a very special passenger: ESA’s JUICE spacecraft! JUICE stands for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, and this high-tech probe is now journeying across space on the adventure of a lifetime!

JUICE’s target is Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System and in particular the icy moons that orbit this world, such as Callisto, Europa, and most of all Ganymede. This fascinating moon has a
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Introducing ESA’s new astronauts

Is being an astronaut your dream job? It is for many people! In 2021, ESA asked for potential space explorers to apply for intensive astronaut training to go the International Space Station, and perhaps even beyond. More than 22,500 people from different ESA Member States applied. A rigorous selection process gradually reduced this number, and now, at long last, 17 new astronaut candidates have been chosen!

Five of those selected will soon be on duty at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne,
ESA Kids •

Meteosat Third Generation satellites will take weather forecasts to the next level

Meteosat Third Generation satellites will take weather forecasts to the next level

When was the last time you checked the weather forecast? It is something many of us do every day, but have you ever stopped to think about how we predict the weather? Most of our best information comes from satellites orbiting Earth, taking photos and measurements that help tell you whether to pack your suncream or umbrella!

For the last 45 years, satellites called Meteosats have been orbiting our planet, monito
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Artemis I mission sets its sights on the Moon

Artemis I mission sets its sights on the Moon

29 August 2022 will be a special day for space exploration! A huge Space Launch Systems rocket is scheduled to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying with it NASA’s Orion Crew Module and its European Service Module. Their mission, called Artemis I, will take them to the Moon and back!

It is all part of an exciting plan to send astronauts to the Moon (for the first time since 1972), to asteroids, and, eventually, even to the planet Mars.
ESA Kids •

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti arrives at the International Space Station to begin her Minerva mission

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti arrives at the International Space Station to begin her Minerva mission

On Wednesday 27 April 2022, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft called Freedom blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. On board was Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and her NASA colleagues Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins. These explorers travelled all the way into orbit around Earth and have now docked with the International Space Station!
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ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer makes journey of a lifetime to the International Space Station

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer makes journey of a lifetime to the International Space Station

Matthias travelled to the ISS onboard a craft called a SpaceX Crew Dragon loaded onto a powerful Falcon 9 rocket. It launched from Florida in the USA on 11 November, and he was accompanied by NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Barron. This intrepid crew were blasted into orbit in just 8 minutes and 48 seconds! Then, the SpaceX Crew Dragon began the slower procedure of moving close t
ESA Kids •

The James Webb Space Telescope will investigate the origins of life, the Universe, and everything

The James Webb Space Telescope will investigate the origins of life, the Universe, and everything

In October this year, a powerful Ariane 5 rocket will blast off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, carrying the largest, most powerful space telescope ever made! Called the James Webb Space Telescope – or Webb for short – this incredible invention will help us to answer fascinating questions about the cosmos, and our place in it. Webb is so advanced, three space agencies teamed up to build i
ESA Kids •

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet begins his second mission to the International Space Station

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet begins his second mission to the International Space Station

Roaring into space onboard a high-tech Crew Dragon spacecraft, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet has now boarded the International Space Station to begin his mission, called Alpha! Travelling with Thomas were NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

The Crew Dragon craft is very new. In fact, Thomas is the first ESA astronaut t
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ESA’s Mars Express finds more underground water

ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has been busy exploring the red planet. Mission scientists have just made an exciting announcement: they have discovered lots of liquid water!

A large lake of water, 20 x 30km, which is about the same size as the city of Rome, was found in 2018 under Mars’ south polar region. These new investigations have revealed three more ponds surrounding it. However, they are all buried under 1.5km of ice! Scientists think that the water in the ponds must be salty, which means
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Juice mission will explore Jupiter and its icy moons

Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System and is remarkably different to our home planet, Earth. Jupiter is a gas giant and is orbited by a family of over 60 moons. To investigate these strange worlds, ESA are preparing to launch an exciting space probe called the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, or Juice for short.

Blasting off in 2022, Juice will travel across our Solar System before arriving at Jupiter in 2029. The robotic probe will t
ESA Kids •

Spotting penguin poo from space

What kind of things do we use satellites for? Most people think of observing the weather and communicating around the world… but what about spotting penguin poo?! It sounds like a joke, but this is exactly what scientists have been doing!

Emperor penguins are only found in Antarctica. They are vulnerable to climate change, as warming ocean waters melt the sea ice where they live and breed. So, it is important that we can track how many groups of penguins – called colonies – there are. This is d
ESA Kids •

Froth and fizz: creating the perfect foam in space

Froth and fizz: creating the perfect foam in space

Do you like to play with bubbles in your bath? When there are lots of bubbles together it is known as a foam, and many foams are useful in our daily lives. Some foods and drinks are improved with foams, like the froth on top of coffee or in a milkshake. Lots of cleaning products and medicines use foams as well.

However, creating the perfect bubbles for different foams is tricky! On Earth, the mixture of gas and liquid that makes up a foam quic
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ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission gets ready to investigate the Sun up close!

ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission gets ready to investigate the Sun up close!

When was the last time you saw the Sun in the sky? It is such a common sight that it can be easy to forget that the Sun is a strange place full of mysteries! Vital for life on Earth, but difficult to study because of its heat and brightness, the Sun is the target of a new ambitious mission that ESA are preparing to launch to unveil our star’s secrets. Called Solar Orbiter, it is set to blast off from Kennedy Space Center in
ESA Kids •

ESA gives go-ahead for the world’s first space junk removal mission

ESA gives go-ahead for the world’s first space junk removal mission

There are nearly 2000 satellites in space, orbiting around Earth. They are very helpful for us, providing communication, allowing us to explore space and monitoring our changing world. However, when satellites break down or malfunction and are no longer useful, they often stay in their orbits becoming what is known as space debris – sometimes nicknamed space junk. This is becoming a big problem. There are more than 3000 broken
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ESA’s CHEOPS satellite will measure the sizes of exoplanets

ESA’s CHEOPS satellite will measure the sizes of exoplanets

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if there are other planets out there, beyond our Solar System? Astronomers have discovered that there are! We call them extrasolar planets, or exoplanets for short. Thousands have been found so far, and that number will only go up as we continue the search.

It is very difficult to get an actual photograph of an exoplanet, because they are so far away. Instead, astronomers use diffe
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ESA Kids