German Aerospace Center (DLR)

We’re just days away from the launch of #MetopSGA1!
The upper composite housing the satellite has been transferred to the #Ariane6 launcher. 🚀
Are you ready?
🗓 Launch: 12 Aug
📍 Europe’s Spaceport, Kourou
🔗 Lift off scheduled at 21:37 local time (00:37 UTC, 02:37 CEST on August 13): bit.ly/4onryyV

🔴Welcome to the 'Wild West' of Mars 🌵

This month, DLR’s #HRSC onboard @esa.int’s #MarsExpress reveals the western part of the Acheron Fossae region, which might look familiar. 🔍 Its rounded hills and mesas evoke an old western🎥 – just without the cowboys🤠

ℹ️ www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

MetOp-SGA1 satellite with METimage instrument in the Airbus clean room

An illustration showing METImage distinguishing between different features, including clouds, ice, water and smoke, using its different spectral channels.

🛰️⛈️#METimage is ready to launch on @eumetsat.int’s #MetopSGA1 next week!
The German designed and built instrument was developed under the leadership of the @dlr-spaceagency.bsky.social and will improve short-term weather forecasts, including during extreme weather events.
ℹ️ www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

🦴 We've got our own robot Krypto!
@esa.int's Spot was on the hunt, fetching martian samples as part of the Surface Avatar experiment with @dlr-en.bsky.social. Pretty punk rock for a robot dog 🤘🐕‍🦺

♫ Punkrocker - Teddybears ft. Iggy Pop, as heard in #Superman

Joint ESA/DLR Surface Avatar team with the four robots. Credit: ESA-F. Malavasi

🤖 Imagine controlling 4 robots exploring a Mars-like landscape… from the International Space Station 💫
Last week, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim guided @esa.int and @dlr-en.bsky.social robots in the final Surface Avatar experiment, testing human-robot teamwork for future space missions 🌕🚀
🧵👇

✈️DLR is taking to the skies to protect our soil! 🌱

Healthy soil is vanishing fast, and no soil means no food! DLR’s AgriROSE campaign is using aircraft to test radar & hyperspectral tech to monitor crops & soil from the sky, forming a foundation for sustainable agriculture and climate resilience💪

Key Visual des Space Talent Day: Ein bunter Kopf im Profil mit leuchtenden kleinen und großen Sternen vor einem dunklen Hintergrund. Slogan: As diverse as the universe, Carrers at DLR and ESA.

🚀🌌 Lust auf Karriere im Raumfahrtsektor? 🌌🚀 Dann könnt ihr euch jetzt für den #SpaceTalentDay am 20. September anmelden, den wir gemeinsam mit @de.esa.int veranstalten. Wo? Am Standort Köln von @dlr-de.bsky.social
@dlr-next.bsky.social
@de.esa.int
registration.dlr-pt.de/de/space-tal...
📷: DLR

Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski speaking at a press conference after arriving in Cologne.

ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski enters DLR's :envihab

⏱ No time to waste! Just 48h after leaving the ISS, @esa.int astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski is back at our :envihab facility in Cologne. The team is studying how microgravity affected his bones, muscles & eyes, as well as radiation data collected while in space.

ℹ️ www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

Study participant in their sleep pod

The module doors open at the end of the SOLIS8 study

🚀 Space is a lonely place! 🌌

The SOLIS8 pilot isolation study has concluded! 6 volunteers spend 8 days completely cut off from the outside world, to simulate real space mission conditions. This lays the groundwork for the longer SOLIS100 study planned for 2026.

ℹ️
www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

🚀 'Polymer Electrolyte Based Flexible Micro-Supercapacitors for Future #Aerospace & Smart e-Textile Applications' is the title of the #GRAPHERGIA abstract presented by @dlr-en.bsky.social at the 247th ECS - The Electrochemical Society Meeting

Download it here: graphergia.eu/2025/06/02/g...

#ECS247

A drone takes off for measurements at the WiValdi research wind farm

Drones flying around a wind turbine

A drone ballet in the sky 🩰

🌬️The NearWake project at the #WiValdi Wind Energy Research Farm used a swarm of DLR drones to understand the wakes of wind turbines. This research will help wind farms become more efficient, economical and compact⚡

ℹ️ www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...
#WindEnergy 🧪

Thomas Reiter during suit-up for STS-121 launch

Impressive side-on closeup view of STS-121 launch, just after liftoff, with ocean and cape view in background.

Close-up view of Discovery STS-121 launch with exhaust plumes and rocket engine shock diamonds, orange fuel tank and blue sky

#OTD: 4 July 2006, German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter was launched on Space Shuttle STS-121 for his five-month #Astrolab mission, Europe’s first long-duration mission to the International Space Station.

@dlr-spaceagency.bsky.social @dlr-en.bsky.social @de.esa.int

A study participant performing strength training on equipment, while lying down.

🕰️It’s time for bed! 🛏️ The NASA bed-rest study at DLR is entering its second round. At the DLR Institute for Aerospace Medicine, we’re testing sensorimotor countermeasures to prepare humans for safe space exploration 🧑‍🚀

Follow our blog for updates 👉 www.dlr.de/en/blog/arch...
#SpaceMedicine

Happy birthday to #MarsExpress! The #HRSC continues to produce stunning and enlightening images to this day, like this recent set of photos showing Martian dust devils and yardangs: www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne... #Mars #planetsci

Speaking on delivering autonomy in Session 6 at #EUSpaceForum:

‣Isabella Poldrugo (@ec.europa.eu)
‣William Smith (Space Directorate, UK)
‣Christian Heßmann (@dlr-en.bsky.social)
‣Christine Leurquin (Aldoria Belgium)
‣Moderator: Olivier Lemaitre (@asdeurope.bsky.social)

Andreas Joshi participating in the bed rest study.

🤔Would you stay in bed🛏️for 60 days for the sake of science?

The DLR-NASA bed-rest studies are helping scientists understand how microgravity impacts the human body🧍

Hungry to learn more? Listen to this episode of NASA’s Curious Universe podcast 🎙️ www.nasa.gov/podcasts/cur...
#AnalogAstronaut

PLATO's 'optical bench' with its 26 cameras being lifted onto the service module of the spacecraft in a clean room.

Engineers in a clean room OHB inspect Plato's newly installed 24 cameras on the spacecraft's optical bench.

🛰️ @esa.int's #PLATO is one step closer to launch!🚀 The telescope’s 26 cameras are now mounted on its service module. This includes the 2 'fast' cameras developed by the DLR Institute for Space Research to help PLATO align itself as it searches for Earth-like planets🌍 www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne... 🔭🧪

🔴Martian dust in the wind💨
The new images from DLR’s #HRSC onboard ESA’s #MarsExpress show dust devils on Mars’ Arcadia Planitia. The wind is constantly reshaping the Martian landscape, particularly in lowland plains such as this region

ℹ️: www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne... 🔭 🧪 #planetsci #Mars

An artist's rendering of Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V.'s 'Hyliner' long-haul, liquid hydrogen-fueled airliner concept from 2022. It is flying from right to left in the frame and slightly toward the camera. It resembles a conventional two-engine passenger liner. Part of the fuselage is cut away to reveal the interior, which appears to be a double-decker arrangement of seats. It also reveals, at the aft end of the fuselage, a large, silver pressure vessel, which is assumed to be where the liquid hydrogen is stored. It's also possible there's a second such tank just after of the pilot's cabin. The parts of the fuselage, wings, and tail not cut away have a white and yellow livery. The Bauhaus Luftfahrt logo is painted on the vertical stabiliser, and part of the Bauhaus Luftfahrt's wordmark logo is painted adjacent to the cockpit windows. The background is a washed-out image of a bright, blue sky with high stratus along with cumulus clouds making up a cloud deck below. Shadows are being cast by some of the taller cumulus clouds making it appear as though it is either shortly after sunrise or shortly before sunset. (📸 Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V.)

Bauhaus Luftfahrt is a partnership between the Free State of Bavaria, Airbus, @dlr-en.bsky.social, IABG, Liebherr-Aerospace, and MTU Aero Engines working on future-proofing aviation. That's news to us 🤨 and it's already their 20th anniversary. | 🛩️ ⚡️ 📰 🥇 | 🔗 www.bauhaus-luftfahrt.net/en/20-years-...

An image of Upsala Glacier in 2008 and 2022, showing the recession of the glacier over time.

🎩Phileas Fogg has nothing on the German TerraSAR-X radar satellite 🛰️, which just completed its 100 000th trip around the world🌍

In its 18 years in operation, the satellite has produced over 350,000 images documenting changes to Earth’s surface.
ℹ️: www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...
#EarthObservation 🧪

We're looking into this and will get back to you with an answer as soon as we can!

This image shows the sea, in deep shades of green, around landmasses in a wide variety of shades of vibrant green. Conical mountains pierce upwards, creating a sense of great elevation differences beneath the forest.

The 'Philippines' in the Maluku Islands, also known as the Spice Islands, in eastern Indonesia, are the subject of this image, further proving the power of BIOMASS and its ability to see details of geological features – including volcanos – beneath a dense forest.

A bright green image resembling a leave under a microscope, although it depicts a large area of rainforest instead. It is cut across by a few rivers, appearing as very squiggly narrow black lines. Branching structures spread across the rest of the image.

The tropical rainforest in the Congo Basin in Central Africa – the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world. The pronounced topographical variations across the forest’s subsurface are a result of the unique ability of the P-band radar to penetrate the canopy and 'see' the ground below.

A forest landscape dappled with a mixture of green and red tones indicating different surfaces. A large river weaves across the centre of the image sinuously, while a smaller river cuts across from the other side.

This image shows the Amazon river in the Brazilian state of Pará. The river and all bodies of water appear blue. The red hue depicts the forested areas on both sides of the river, indicating areas where radar waves bounced between the ground and tree trunks.

A map with the land covered vibrant shades of green, in mixed with red in some areas and showing topographical features. The upper half shows a coastline with water, in shades of blue so dark they seem black in places. Multiple rivers snake across the landscape.

The hues in BIOMASS’s images, like this one of Borneo, have a meaning:
🔵: Water and unvegetated areas
🟢: Vegetation and scattering within canopies
🔴: Radar waves scattering off multiple surfaces. Here, the darkest red hues are flooded forests, where the waves bounce between water and trees.

BIOMASS sees the forests and the trees – plus much more🛰️👀

The satellite's first images – processed by DLR scientists – showcase its remarkable ability use P-band radar to image forests🌳, seeing through the canopy to the ecosystems and geological features below: www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...
🧵

How do you combine #Postgraduate study with gaining industry experience? PhD student Joe Smith is currently on a three month internship with the @dlr-en.bsky.social using his specialist skills in #DeepLearning and #ComputerVision in an industry adjacent role.

Read more here: lnkd.in/g7ttkUcR

A white container of the EDEN ISS research facility is elevated on stilts in a frozen, remote environment under a clear blue sky. The side of the container displays a large logo featuring a plant above the Earth and Moon, alongside the text “EDEN ISS” and several national flags. The scene represents extreme plant cultivation for future space missions. The “30 Years Stories” logo is visible in the top right. The caption in the lower left reads: “#28 From the Antarctic to the Moon – Extreme Plant Cultivation for Space Applications.” The Helmholtz logo appears at the bottom right.

No sun. No soil. Still: over a ton of veggies in Antarctica. @dlr-en.bsky.social & @awi.de show how food production could work in extreme environments.
🔗 Find out how: t1p.de/l9799 #Helmholtz30

✈️👀Great to see so many of our members at @siae.fr, showcasing the future of European #aviation.

🙌🏼 #AirFrance #Airbus #Boeing #CIRA #CollinsAerospace @dlr-en.bsky.social‬ #ENAC #Honeywell #Indra #NLR @onera.bsky.social‬ #Leonardo #Pipistrel #SAAB @safran-group.com #Thales

#DigitalSky #ATM #PAS25

Vom 16. bis 22. Juni 2025 präsentiert das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) auf der Paris Air Show in Le Bourget seine aktuellen Forschungsprojekte. Dabei gibt das DLR Einblicke in Entwicklungen aus den Bereichen Luftfahrt, Raumfahrt, Energie, Verkehr sowie Sicherheit und Verteidigung. Credit: DLR

Der deutsch-französische Klimasatellit MERLIN soll während seiner dreijährigen Mission das Treibhausgas Methan in der Atmosphäre aufspüren und überwachen. Credit: DLR

Modell des DLR-Forschungsflugzeugs D328® UpLift Die D328® UpLift wird als fliegendes Testlabor für neue Kraftstoffe und innovative Luftfahrttechnologien der Zukunft eingesetzt, wie beispielsweise synthetische Treibstoffe oder Wasserstoff. Die aktuellen Flüge finden als Testflüge statt, da die Nutzung von 100 Prozent synthetischen aromatenfreien Kraftstoffen noch nicht allgemein zertifiziert ist. Credit: DLR

Das Kleinflugzeugkonzept „HyBird“ soll als Hybridflugzeug die Personen- und/oder Frachtbeförderung im interurbanen Raum ermöglicht. Credit: DLR

„Bienvenue“– willkommen auf der Paris Air Show 2025! ✈️ Diesmal am DLR-Stand: MERLIN, ein Satellit, der präzise Methan in der Atmosphäre messen kann, ein Ultraleicht-Flugzeug mit hybrider Antriebstechnologie & die Kraftstoffe der Zukunft. Weitere Highlights & Projekte ℹ️ 👉 s.dlr.de/PAS2025