ESA: Space in Your Feed
The European Space Agency's official Instagram: Earth from orbit, rocket launches, astronauts, and missions to the Moon and asteroids.
What it is
@europeanspaceagency is the official account of the European Space Agency, the organization that pools Europe's space programmes. It has around 3.4 million followers and more than five thousand posts. The bio jokes that "space is our middle name" and points to a sister account, @ESA_Earth, for pictures of our own planet.
The feed mixes three things: striking imagery (Earth from orbit, nebulae, planetary surfaces), mission news, and human stories about astronauts. Captions are in English, often playful, sometimes asking the audience a question, but most posts make sense from the picture alone.
Pinned highlights gather the big storylines: the Hera mission to an asteroid, a solar eclipse, trips to the Moon, the Ariane 6 rocket. It's a quick way to see what ESA is busy with right now.
Why we picked it
Space is one of the few sciences that's naturally visual, and ESA knows how to use that. In October 2026 the agency was posting almost daily: a "Welcome home, Sophie!" post marking an astronaut's return from orbit drew tens of thousands of likes, and a reel captioned "There's more than meets the eye" invited people to look closer at an image.
We like that it doesn't feel like a government press office. There are collaborative posts with astronauts, and when we checked, the grid even included a collaboration with Pokémon — space presented with a light touch rather than a lecture. Still, behind every pretty frame is a real mission, and the caption tells you which one.
There's also the value of a European angle. Most of us picture space through NASA; here you get different projects, different astronauts and different rockets, which rounds out the picture.
Where to start
- Open the Hera highlight to see how we study asteroids up close.
- Watch the solar eclipse highlight for the most dramatic frames.
- Find the October 2026 post welcoming astronaut Sophie back to Earth.
- Check the Ariane 6 highlight if launches are your thing.
- Follow @ESA_Earth too if Earth-from-space imagery is what you're after.
Who it's for
Anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered. Students who want visuals for astronomy and physics lessons, and teachers looking for images and discussion starters. People who'd rather not read long captions — Earth, planets and galaxies need no translation. And anyone tired of the news who wants something bigger in their feed.
Quick answers
Is this ESA's official account? Yes. It's linked from the agency's own website, esa.int.
What language is it in? English, but the feed is built around images and video.
How often does it post? When we checked in October 2026, new posts were going up almost every day.
