TheTechno Optimist.

JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer)European Space Agency—JUICE completes second Earth flyby, gaining 3.5 km/s on its way to JupiterRamsesEuropean Space Agency—ESA signs €81.2M contract with OHB Italia to build Ramses for a spring 2028 launchEuclidEuropean Space Agency—ESA splits Euclid's first big data release: images in November 2026, cosmology products in mid-2027HeraEuropean Space Agency—ESA Hera mission targets early arrival at Didymos asteroid in November 2026 to measure DART impactExoMars Rosalind Franklin roverEuropean Space Agency—NASA approves its part of the Rosalind Franklin mission and picks Falcon Heavy for a late-2028 launchEuclidEuropean Space Agency—Euclid images the Milky Way's crowded centre: 60 million stars in one mosaicEuclidEuropean Space Agency—Euclid finds the most ancient quasars known, from the Universe's first 670 million yearsPLATOEuropean Space Agency—PLATO passes thermal-vacuum tests in ESA's Large Space SimulatorPLATOEuropean Space Agency—PLATO completes its last environmental tests; launch set for March 2027ExoMars Rosalind Franklin roverEuropean Space Agency—ESA drop-tests a full-scale mock-up of the ExoMars landing platformArielEuropean Space Agency—Ariel payload assembled for testing; launch now more likely in 2031 than 2029

Euclid

by European Space AgencyFR

Measure what dark energy and dark matter are by mapping how matter is spread through space and time across a third of the sky, using the shapes and distances of over a billion galaxies.

DeployStage 4 of 5

Surveying since 2024; first big data release (about 1,900 sq deg) due 12 November 2026.

Updated 6 Jul 2026Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · DR1-Foundation: images and catalogues for ~1,900 sq deg
  1. Launch on Falcon 9 to Sun-Earth L21 Jul 2023Complete.
  2. First full-colour images released7 Nov 2023Complete.
  3. Main six-year survey begins14 Feb 2024Complete.
  4. First quick data release: 63 sq deg, 26 million galaxies19 Mar 2025Complete.
  5. Second quick release, incl. Milky Way bulge images24 Jun 2026Complete.
  6. DR1-Foundation: images and catalogues for ~1,900 sq degTarget 12 Nov 2026+1 mooriginally Oct 2026Current milestone.
  7. Full DR1 with cosmology-ready productsTarget 2027Not yet reached.
  8. Data Release 2Target Jun 2029Not yet reached.
  9. Data Release 3, final survey dataTarget Oct 2031Not yet reached.

Most important updates

Upcoming

  1. 12 Nov 2026DR1-Foundation: images and catalogues for ~1,900 sq deg+1 mooriginally Oct 2026in 32 days (next)
  2. 2027Full DR1 with cosmology-ready products
  3. Jun 2029Data Release 2
  4. Oct 2031Data Release 3, final survey data
Primer