Agence spatiale européenne
The European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to space exploration, with 22 member states. Founded in 1975, ESA shapes Europe's space capabilities, ensuring investments in space deliver benefits to European citizens, working across the entire space sector. ESA develops and operates Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications, and astronomy satellites and sends probes to explore the solar system, partnering with agencies like NASA, JAXA and commercial partners like Airbus. Key programs include the development of launch vehicles like Ariane and Vega, the Galileo satellite navigation system, and missions like Rosetta and BepiColombo.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
Early operations for the April Galileo launch were executed by the Galileo Service Operator supported by around 30 satellite experts from ESA and manufacturer OHB at the Galileo Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, under the responsibility of EUSPA.
ESA’s Zero Debris approach sets a goal of reducing debris from ESA missions to zero by 2030 through measures including deorbiting spacecraft at the end of their missions.
The European Space Agency successfully deorbited the Cluster 2 satellite called Salsa on 2024-09-08 in a targeted reentry over the South Pacific.
ESA is preparing to complete its transition from the first-generation Vega rocket to the upgraded Vega-C rocket.
Vega was the first rocket to be entirely managed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The European Space Agency stated on 2024-09-02 that BepiColombo will take a slightly different trajectory during its Mercury flyby on 2024-09-04.
Vega was the first rocket entirely managed by ESA and was built to send small satellites into low Earth orbit.
Celestia UK developed the eScan technology under ESA’s ARTES Core Competitiveness and Sunrise Partnership Project programs.
ESA WebTV will broadcast the Sentinel-2C launch from 03:30 CEST on 4 September 2024.
BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that launched in 2018 and has made several flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury.
ReOrbit’s technology is supported by Business Finland, the European Space Agency, and the European Commission.
GOMX-4B was developed with the support of the European Space Agency GSTP program.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is providing the Orion Service Module for the Artemis program.
ESA aims for a 99% probability of success for the removal of space objects from orbit at the end of their missions.
ESA has its own ClearSpace project to demonstrate the ability to deorbit space debris.
In May 2023, ESA announced that 12 countries had signed the Zero Debris Charter.
ESA's director general Josef Aschbacher stated the failure of the Ariane 6 upper stage to relight its engine was an embarrassment for ESA.
ESA reported that there are now 35,000 objects in orbit that are at least ten centimeters across, with over 9,000 being active satellites.
The ESA's Zero Debris Charter calls on signatories to not leave any debris in orbit by 2030.
The TENACIOUS lunar micro rover was designed, manufactured, and assembled with co-funding from the Luxembourg Space Agency through a European Space Agency contract with the Luxembourg National Space Programme LuxIMPULSE.