The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is organised each year by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and its associates. IAC 2006 is being held in Valencia's City of Arts, attended by over 2500 delegates - including the heads of all the major space agencies, industry, academia the media and the space-interested public. For organisations like ESA this is an excellent opportunity to share the latest information on current and future space projects and programmes. The ESA exhibition "from Earth to Space and back" takes visitors on a journey of discovery, with highlights of the European space programme, and is open to both professionals and the general public. This year there is a special focus on students and young space professionals, with lectures and presentations, as well as the opportunity to meet with leading figures in the space world.

European astronauts prepare for demanding missions --- The intense media coverage given to Thomas Reiter's ongoing Astrolab mission and the press presence at today's joint ESA-German Aerospace Centre event is an indication of Europe's strong interest in ESA's human space activities. With ESA astronauts from several European nations now in training for ISS missions through 2007, this interest is likely only to grow.

Yesterday, America's National Public Radio called the International Space Station (ISS) to ask astronauts questions posed by listeners nationwide. Can you see man-made structures on Earth? Does the ISS smell bad? And what is it like in space. Really. From your heart? These and other insightful questions were posed to ISS crew members Thomas Reiter, an ESA astronaut from Germany, Pavel Vinogradov, from Russia, and Jeff Williams, from the USA, by listeners of the popular nationwide NPR radio network. Reiter is currently conducting ESA's first long-duration mission to the ISS.

Environmental data from satellites are helping to combat the spread of epidemics.

Astronauts living in the weightless environment of the International Space Station experience a reduction in the size and strength of their muscles - a condition known as muscle atrophy. As a countermeasure to muscle atrophy the astronauts living on the Station perform two hours of exercise each day. A new device called MARES - the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System - which will be installed in the European Columbus Module, will help the astronauts to monitor the effectiveness of these countermeasures whilst they are still in orbit. ESA astronaut Frank De Winne was recently involved in testing of the new device.

SMART-1 mission of exploration to the Moon is about to end, and telescopes may catch the show as it impacts the Moon.

An overview of Europe's first lunar mission's achievements.

ESRIN, ESA's Earth Observation Centre, is hosting the Envisat Summer School from 31 July to 11 August 2006. The course focuses on observing global change from space, modelling the Earth's system and combining data to make forecasts and predictions.

The Space Day conference attracted top representatives from the space agencies of the most space faring countries.

Initial results from VIRTIS, the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer onboard Venus Express, are helping clarify the atmosphere's chemical composition.