A satellite-based mobile communication system developed by Inmarsat with ESA support has been awarded Britain’s top prize for engineering innovation. The judges noted how well the BGAN system served relief teams responding to the Haiti earthquake.

This month the International Astronautical Congress will be held in Prague for the first time in 33 years. The global event highlights the growing activities in space industry, science and education in the Czech Republic — ESA's newest Member State.

ESA is offering European students the opportunity to conduct hypergravity experiments, with a call for proposals for the 2011 ‘Spin Your Thesis!’ campaign.

ESA's SMOS water mission has taken another step forward by demonstrating that it will lead to a better understanding of ocean circulation. Using preliminary data, scientists can clearly see how the 'Amazon plume' affects surface currents in the open sea.

Devastating around a third of the country, it is estimated that the floods in Pakistan have affected up to 20 million people. As part of the effort to support humanitarian relief, satellite data are being used to generate essential maps of the flooded areas.

ESA is inviting students to propose experiments to fly on sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons. The winning teams will have the opportunity to design and build an experiment for the BEXUS balloons or the REXUS rockets.

Just as we grow used to satellite navigation in everyday life, media reports argue that a coming surge in solar activity could render satnav devices useless, perhaps even frying satellites themselves. Is it true? No.

One of the most complex space scientific instruments ever built, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, escorted by astronauts who will fly with it onthe Space Shuttle inFebruary 2011.

ESA PR 2010-19 Media representatives are cordially invited to a briefing on the occasion of ten years of scientific discoveries by ESA’s Cluster mission. Over the past decade, Cluster’s four satellites have provided extraordinary insights into the largely invisible interaction between the Sun and Earth. The media briefing takes place at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, on 1 September 2010 from 11:00 – 12:00 am. Doors open at 10:30 am.

A US/EU working group designed to enhance cooperation for the next generation GPS and Galileo has recently completed an assessment of the global, combined performance for GPS Space –Based Augmentation System (SBAS) receivers using the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) and the GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) supporting safety –of-life applications.

Two start-up companies offering a communication handset for outdoor enthusiasts and a computer game to compete live with real racing drivers, both made possible thanks to space technology, are the first to receive funds from ESA’s new Open Sky Technologies Fund.

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In the fourth diary entry, Diego tells us about watching the World Cup with a time delay and 'hunting' for food. With no supermarket on the way to Mars, tracking and monitoring of supplies is vital.

A special kind of titanium and a manufacturing technique used to build the Ariane 5 rocket could become the next successful spin-offs from Europe’s space programme, benefiting the oil and gas industry.

Resembling the brush strokes of French Impressionist Claude Monet, electric blue-coloured plankton blooms swirl in the North Atlantic Ocean off Ireland in this Envisat image.

Young Earth scientists from all over the world are gathering this August in ESRIN, ESA’s centre for Earth observation, in Frascati, near Rome, Italy, for the fifth ESA Earth Observation Summer School.

One of the European Space Agency experiments involves the collection of air samples to measure the quality of air in a confined space such as the Mars500 modules. Romain Charles demonstrates the collection procedure and describes the scope of this experiment.

The Payload Module of ESA’s latest meteorological satellite, MetOp-B, has been hauled out of the largest vacuum chamber in Europe: its ability to operate in the harsh conditions of space has been proved.

An award-winning new website is using realtime imagery from ESA's Envisat satellite to provide a wealth of information on sea ice to aid safe passage through the treacherous waters of the Antarctic.

While the recent Living Planet Symposium focused mainly on the latest findings on Earth's environment and climate using data from Earth observation satellites, it also provided the forum to present the progress that the GMES initiative has made since the last symposium in 2007.