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.
Vast and ESA will jointly support European industry in obtaining certification for docking to future Vast Space Stations.
Vast is building Haven-1 with European technology to enable ESA astronaut missions starting in 2026.
ESA and Vast signed a Memorandum of Understanding at ILA Berlin 2024 to collaborate on future Vast space stations.
The European Space Agency revealed the 2024-07-09 Ariane 6 launch date at the ILA Berlin air show on 2024-06-05.
The Exploration Company won an ESA award to establish a commercial cargo spacecraft.
The European Space Agency and its partners scheduled the first Ariane 6 launch for 2024-07-09.
ESA’s OPS-SAT was launched on 2019-12-18.
CYBERCUBE is a cybersecurity demonstration mission managed by the ESA Security Office that will allow OPS-SAT Space Lab experimentation once the mission’s principle aims have been achieved.
The additional atmospheric Sentinels delivered by Airbus are expected to operate in orbit providing data for the next two decades.
Airbus Defence and Space delivered the first Sentinel-5 instrument for the European Space Agency for integration on MetOp Second Generation Satellite A.
On 2024-05-22, the European Space Agency and 12 countries signed the Zero Debris Charter.
Slovakia signed the ESA-led Zero Debris Charter on limiting the creation of orbital debris on 2024-05-22.
The Zero Debris Charter was developed in response to a call at the 2022 ESA ministerial meeting to pursue a zero-debris approach with the goal of no net addition of debris in orbit by 2030.
The Exploration Company was selected by the European Space Agency on 2025-05-22 for an initial study contract as one of two companies for a commercial cargo service to support the ISS and commercial stations.
The contract to build the seven Greek satellites is funded by the government of Greece and managed by the European Space Agency.
The European Space Agency launched a competitive tender in December 2023 requesting European companies to demonstrate a complete cargo delivery service.
The first linefit aircraft with Intelsat’s ESA inflight service for Japan Airlines is expected to be delivered in 2026.
The first Boeing 737 with factory-installed Intelsat ESA inflight service is expected to be delivered in 2026.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched the ESA and JAXA EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) mission on Tuesday, 2024-05-28 at 3:10 p.m. PDT from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
EarthCARE was moved to Europe’s Vega C before ESA decided in June of the previous year to launch it on a Falcon 9 due to delays returning Vega C to flight and required payload fairing modifications.