ESA Education

23/10/2026

✨👽 Paxi has news about Plato’s Find-a-New-Earth Art Challenge! 🎨🪐

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👀 A little peek behind the scenes… and update on Plato's Find-a-new-Earth Art Challenge! 🎨

Wow, you really didn’t make this easy for us! 🤩 Together with our expert jury, I am very busy looking through all your amazing entries and choosing our winners. We are finalising our selection soon!✨

A huge thank you to everyone who took part 💙 Keep an eye on ESA Kids to find out who the lucky winners are! 🏆

https://kids.esa.int/

23/10/2026

✨ The ESERO family is growing 🌍

A warm welcome to the newest member: ESERO Latvia! 🤗

💫 Officially inaugurated on 21 October at the University of Latvia in Riga, ESERO Latvia brings together the expertise of the University of Latvia, Ventspils University of Applied Sciences and the Cēsis Space Education Centre to connect space, technology and STEM education in new and exciting ways.

👩‍🏫 Through educational and inspirational activities for children and young people, as well as their families, teachers and educators, the new office will create new opportunities for space-inspired learning.

🚀 With Latvia joining the network, ESERO now comprises 23 offices across Europe, creating even more opportunities to explore space in education and spark curiosity among the next generation!

🔗 Read more: https://education.esa.int/space-inspires-new-learning-opportunities-as-esero-launches-in-latvia/

📸 : Pauls Zvirbulis

21/10/2026

⌛ CanSat national competition deadlines are approaching!

🥫 With CanSat, secondary school students aged 14–19 can design and build a satellite that fits inside a drinks can and develop their own scientific or technological mission.

🪂 Along the way, they deepen their knowledge of STEM subjects and build essential skills such as teamwork, proactivity, design thinking and problem solving.

Find your national competition and check the deadline:
🔗 https://cansat.esa.int/national-competitions/

21/10/2026

🎈 Student experiments take flight! 🎈

🎓 From 9 to 19 October, 79 university students from across Europe came together at Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden for the BEXUS 38 and BEXUS 39 launch campaign.

🪛 As part of the REXUS/BEXUS (Rocket/Balloon Experiments for University Students) programme, 11 student teams prepared their experiments for flights into the stratosphere, carrying out final tests, system checks and launch preparations.

👏 The launch campaign gives students practical experience in developing and testing experiments in a real space-project environment.

Learn more about the student experiments:

🔗 https://education.esa.int/student-experiments-fly-to-the-stratosphere-with-bexus-38-and-39-balloons

📸 : SSC Space

20/10/2026

🌍 Did you know the ESERO network spans more than 4,000 km across Europe? 🚶‍♀️

✨ Each ESERO supports teachers and educators in their own country. ESERO respects national, languages, curricula and needs. It connects education with the national space professional sector.

🚀 In many countries, ESERO uses Space Ambassadors to bring space education close to schools.

With national Space Ambassadors, ESERO Austria, ESERO Belgium, ESERO Česká republika, ESERO Greece, Esero Italia, ESERO Polska, ESERO Portugal and ESERO UK support educators locally and run activities that spark students’ curiosity. 🌞

🤝 At the same time, every ESERO is also part of a Europe-wide network where all the ESEROs learn from each other and share expertise and best practices.

👩‍🚀 Take Mission X! New classroom resources inspired by ESA’s first para-astronaut training took off in France and landed in Austria, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands—with each national ESERO adapting them for local classrooms.

The result? Inspiring teaching materials celebrating inclusion and diversity, reaching learners in six languages! 🌍

✨ Local action. European teamwork. Sharing great ideas and quality resources so more teachers and students can benefit—that’s the strength of the ESERO network!

📸: ESA - ESERO Poland Copernicus Science Centre/Paweł Wodzyński

20/10/2026

📡 How do you design a satellite communication mission? 🛰️

🎓 Join the Satellite Communication Systems Training Course 2027, developed in collaboration with ESA’s Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications, and explore the technologies that connect users, ground stations and spacecraft across vast distances.

🗓️ 1–5 March 2027
📍 ESA ESEC, Belgium

Working alongside experts from ESA and the European space sector, you will:

🔹 Explore satellite communication systems through lectures, practical exercises and technical discussions.
🔹 Work in a multidisciplinary team to design a satellite communication mission, assess technical trade-offs and present your solution to a panel of experts.
🔹 Discover key concepts, including link budgets, antennas, payloads, ground segments, secure communications and the integration of satellite networks with 5G and 6G.

🚀 Ready to expand your knowledge of satellite communications and put it into practice? Find out more and apply:

🔗 https://education.esa.int/apply-for-the-satellite-communication-systems-training-course-2027/

19/10/2026

EuRoC is under way! 🚀

🎓 What does it take to launch a rocket? Hundreds of students have gathered in Portugal to put their engineering skills, creativity and teamwork to the test, aiming for altitudes of up to 9 km!

🪛 During the first days of the rocketry challenge, teams prepared their rockets for the Flight Readiness Reviews and had the chance to see one another’s rockets up close, exchange ideas and discover different approaches in action.

✨ As a partner in EuRoC, ESA is there too! Many students have stopped by the ESA stand to discover career opportunities and learn about ESA Academy programmes for university students.

👏 Some teams have already launched their rockets, while others are getting ready for their turn. The countdown continues. All eyes on the sky!

Agência Espacial Portuguesa

16/10/2026

🌍 Earth Observation Satellite Systems Design Training 2026 completed! ✨

🎓 From 28 September to 9 October, ESA welcomed 30 university students from ESA Member States, Canada and African countries for an intensive two-week training course organised with the African Space Agency.

📍 During the first week at ESA ESEC-Galaxia in Belgium, participants attended lectures from ESA experts and retirees, exploring the engineering challenges behind Earth observation satellite missions.

💻 In the second week, the students worked online in five multidisciplinary teams on a satellite system design project inspired by Sentinel-3 Next Generation.

📡 Working as system, payload, satellite and ground segment engineers, they developed and presented an end-to-end mission design covering technical requirements, performance, system budgets and operational concepts.

🛰️ The course concluded with five group presentations showcasing the students’ engineering work, collaboration and problem-solving skills.

A huge thank you to all the trainers, organisers and students for their dedication, enthusiasm and contributions throughout the two weeks! 👏

13/10/2026

Rocket, drone, balloon or a tower: how would can students launch their own satellite? 🤔

✨ Throughout the years, ESERO has helped students across Europe experience first-hand space engineering with projects like CanSat - the satellite that fits the size of a soda can 😊

🛰️ CanSat means designing an experiment, building a satellite and parachute, choosing sensors, collecting and analysing data, then sharing findings with experts and peers. With CanSat, students turn ideas into action — building teamwork, creativity and STEM skills every step of the way! 🚀

🚀 Most CanSats are launched on small rockets – this is the case for ESERO Portugal, ESERO Austria, ESERO Belgium, ESERO Finland, ESERO France, ESERO Norway, ESERO NL, ESERO Germany and ESERO UK.

🤩 But some ESEROs have found creative alternatives to take their CanSats skyward 😊

✈️ In 2025, ESERO Česká republika used ultralight aircraft and paragliders.

📺 That same year, ESERO Eesti dropped CanSats from a TV tower in the centre of Tallinn and, the year after, it used a combination of drones and paragliders.

🪂 Guess what is a very important part of a CanSat mission? Its parachute! The parachute must ensure a safe landing, but not only…

🧶 A CanSat Spain team decorated their parachute with traditional embroidery from their hometown, bringing engineering and local heritage hand in hand.

🚀 No matter how you launch it, what it does or what it looks like—CanSat means a small satellite, big learning and loads of fun!

13/10/2026

🚀 SCAMPI has launched! 🦐

Would you like to learn more about the launch of the SCAMPI payload and the journey that led to this milestone?

Read the article to discover the launch campaign, the activities at Kennedy Space Centre, and the successful lift-off of the student-built experiment to the International Space Station.

🔗 https://education.esa.int/student-built-scampi-experiment-launches-to-the-international-space-station/