Media Invitation: ESA Director General’s Annual Press Briefing

Media representatives are invited to join ESA's start-of-the-year press briefing looking ahead to 2026 with Director General Josef Aschbacher on Thursday 8 January 2026 from 10:00 CET at ESA HQ in Paris.

This press briefing will be an opportunity to hear about the main milestones for ESA next year, such as the launch of Smile, a mission that will give humankind its first complete look at how Earth reacts to streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun. Later in 2026 should also see the arrival of BepiColombo at Mercury after its eight-year trip, where it will gather data to answer many perplexing questions about the least-explored planet of the inner Solar System.

Many more exciting missions are expected next year, with ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot launching for the International Space Station, and various Earth Observation and Navigation launches from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

ESA Directors will join Josef Aschbacher to detail ESA's new scientific, exploration, Earth observation, connectivity and navigation missions for 2026 - and the technology and operations that underpin them all.

Media representatives are invited to register by 17:00 CET on Tuesday 6 January 2026 for on-site presence in HQ Paris or to receive access codes for the ESA WebEx online session. Only those registered will be able to ask questions. https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form/

ESA Director General's Annual Press Briefing will also be streamed via esawebtv.esa.int on 8 January 2026 from 10:00 CET and available on replay afterwards.

Media contacts

For further information, please contact ESA Media Relations [email protected], Polina Huard [email protected], Hortense de Roffignac [email protected] .

Images

ESA's Photo Library for Professionals:

Home Page - Photolibrary for professionals

Terms and conditions for using ESA images:https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/ESA_Multimedia/Copyright_Notice_Images

For questions or more information related to ESA images, please contact directly [email protected]

Videos

ESA's Video Library for Professionals:

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos

Terms and conditions for using ESA videos

For questions or more information related to ESA videos, please contact directly [email protected]

Social media

Follow ESA on:

X: @ESA, @esaspaceflight
BlueSky: @esa.int, @exploration.esa.int
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Facebook: EuropeanSpaceAgency
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About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe's gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 23 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia are Associate Members.

ESA has established formal cooperation with four Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.

Learn more about ESA at https://www.esa.int