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Welcome to the UK Space Agency's News and Events pages.

Please select a news release from our latest news section or visit our events calendar relating to space activities in the UK and overseas.

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• Rare merger reveals secrets of galaxy evolution

  Yesterday

  A rare encounter between two gas-rich galaxies spotted by Europe’s Herschel space observatory indicates a solution to an outstanding problem: how did massive, passive galaxies form in the early Universe?

• Tessella selected as a key supplier to the Solar Orbiter mission

  20 May 2013

  UK company Tessella has received a contract for the development and design of the Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem (AOCS) for ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission. The project will last for approximately 4 years and be worth in excess of €4M.

• Tim Peake to be first British astronaut in space for over 20 years

  20 May 2013

  Former Apache helicopter pilot Tim Peake is to become the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station, making him the first UK astronaut in space for over 20 years.

• Does the EU influence your work?

  16 May 2013

  The review of competence covers aspects of space and innovation, therefore, for good or ill? Let us know!

• European Space Agency opens its doors in UK

  14 May 2013

  David Willetts, UK Minister for Universities and Science, and Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, today unveiled the Agency’s first UK facility: ECSAT, the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications, located at the Harwell Oxford campus.

• European BIOMASS mission set for 2020 launch

  10 May 2013

  The UK is set to take part in a European space mission to map and monitor the amount of biomass and carbon stored in the world’s forests. Named BIOMASS, the new mission will provide information essential to our understanding of the role of forests in Earth’s carbon cycle and in climate change.

• Herschel finds hot gas on the menu for Milky Way’s black hole

  7 May 2013

  Astronomers using Europe’s Herschel Space Observatory have spotted a cloud of incredibly hot gas very close to the supermassive black hole that lies at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy.

• Image of the Week: Purple Haze

  7 May 2013

  Two thin layers of haze float in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. The surface of the moon remained a mystery to scientists until the arrival of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.

• Herschel shows galaxies had cool beginnings

  2 May 2013

  Observations from the Herschel Space Observatory have shown that galaxies in the early Universe were cooler than those we see around us today. This indicates that early galaxies were more bloated, containing more dust, distributed over larger regions.

• UK Space Agency and NASA join forces to explore the Solar System

  2 May 2013

  The Sun and our neighbouring planet Mars are two destinations that the UK and US will be exploring together in the coming years, following recent agreements for collaboration on three big space projects.