ESA Explores

In episode one of ESA Explores' Time and Space series, we explore the early days of Soviet spaceflight in conversation with Romania's first cosmonaut Dorin Prunariu. Dorin was one of 11 Europeans to fly under Russia's Interkosmos programme. In 1978, ...

One of the first engineers to work on Spacelab Alan Thirkettle talks hosts Ally and Stephen through the unexpected challenges and memorable moments of building a science laboratory for space. This unique European-built research facility flew inside N...

In this episode of our ESA Explores Time and Space series we chat with the first ESA astronaut to fly to space, physicist Ulf Merbold. Ulf flew on the 9th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle programme and the first flight of European-built Spacelab in 198...

It's not just Europeans who have flown into orbit, Europe has also produced some impressive pieces of space-worthy kit. In this episode, hosts Ally Koehler and Stephen Ennis take a look at some of the post-SpaceLab ESA projects that never quite made ...

In the final episode of our Time and Space series, ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration David Parker talks us through Europe's next steps into space. We hear about ESA's three exploration destinations: the International Space Station, the Mo...

The addition of ESA's Columbus laboratory, and the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) programme, changed the shape of European participation on the International Space Station. But its launch came at a challenging time for human spaceflight. In this ep...