25/09/2026
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The European Space Agency has reached another significant milestone in its commitment to advancing our understanding of Earth’s dynamic processes and tackling pressing environmental challenges. Three new mission candidates – ECO, Keystone and CryoRad – have been selected to progress to the next preparatory phase, marking an important step towards the realisation of ESA’s twelfth Earth Explorer satellite mission.
Today, ESA’s Programme Board for Earth Observation took the decision to pave the way for three mission concepts to move forward to the next stage of development taking into account both their scientific relevance and programmatic considerations.
The decision follows the User Consultation Meeting held in July, where four mission concepts underwent detailed scrutiny by the scientific community. Building on the outcomes of this important consultation, ESA’s Advisory Committee for Earth Observation (ACEO) provided their advice on the scientific merits of each mission, ranking them in the following order: ECO, Keystone, CryoRad, Hydroterra+.
Rene Forsberg, on behalf of the ACEO, said, “ECO would target global mean Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI), the most fundamental climate variable, and widely recognised as the most important longstanding knowledge gap in quantifying ongoing climate change and would assess the effectiveness of climate mitigation measures.”
Acknowledging the scientific and societal relevance of EEI, ESA and its Member States set science first by giving the extremely challenging ECO mission concept the opportunity to be further investigated in the framework of the Earth Explorer 12 activities.
Highlighting the relevance of the Keystone concept, Prof. Forsberg noted, “By providing the first global direct observations of atomic oxygen together with co-located measurements of temperature, wind and relevant atmospheric constituents in the 50–250 km altitude range, Keystone would address fundamental knowledge gaps in this underexplored part of the atmosphere.”
As an additional benefit, Keystone would also detect metal from space debris entering the atmosphere, which is projected to increase exponentially in the future.
Furthermore, ACEO recognised the compelling objectives of the CryoRad concept, which would directly measure temperatures and basal conditions within the polar ice sheets. These measurements would provide data for understanding ice-sheet dynamics and, therefore, improve the ability to assess future global sea level.
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, said, “Over the past two years, each of the four mission concepts has been studied extensively. Each represents an ambitious approach to advancing Earth science and innovation, aligned with the goals of the FutureEO programme and with the potential to deliver new insights into the complex and interconnected processes shaping our planet. All candidate teams demonstrated outstanding scientific ambition and commitment throughout this phase.
“I would like to thank everyone involved for their dedication and for the tremendous effort that has gone into developing these compelling and highly competitive mission concepts – and now we look forward to seeing ECO, Keystone and CryoRad progress in their next phase of development.”
ECO, Keystone and CryoRad will now proceed to the next stage of development, with one of the three missions to be selected prior to the next ESA Council at Ministerial level for implementation as Earth Explorer 12. The selected mission is expected to launch in the 2036 timeframe.
Earth Explorer missions
The family of Earth Explorer research missions are pivotal to ESA’s FutureEO programme. Since the successful launch of the first Earth Explorer in 2009, this extraordinary family of missions, without exception, keep on surpassing expectations.
They continue to demonstrate how breakthrough technology can deliver an astounding range of scientific findings about our planet. Their robust technology leads to many being extended way beyond their planned life in orbit and they gain ever-growing user communities through their scientific excellence and open and free data policy.