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.
EarthCARE is the second ESA-led mission to launch on a Falcon 9 after the Euclid space telescope launched in July of the previous year.
The ESA commercial cargo program awarded contracts for initial studies to Thales Alenia Space and The Exploration Company on 2024-05-22, a little more than six months after ESA announced it would formally begin the program.
The European Space Agency awarded Airbus Defence and Space a contract to build the Vigil spacecraft.
ESA will seek funding for later phases of the cargo vehicle program at its next ministerial meeting in late 2025 with the goal of having at least one vehicle ready to enter service by 2028.
The European Space Agency announced plans for the cargo vehicle program at the European Space Summit in Seville, Spain, in November 2024.
The European Space Agency awarded study contracts worth about 25,000,000 EUR each to Thales Alenia Space and The Exploration Company on 2024-05-22.
ESA planned to provide a specific tentative Ariane 6 launch date at the ILA air show in Berlin scheduled for 2024-06-05 to 9.
Avanti and StarWin successfully tested an Electronically Steered Phased Array Antenna (ESA) terminal for Communications On The Move on Avanti’s HYLAS 4 Ka-band satellite in October 2023.
The European Space Agency and the joint team including ArianeGroup, Arianespace, and the French space agency CNES expect the Ariane 6 inaugural launch to take place in the first two weeks of July.
The EarthCARE mission, a joint Earth science mission of ESA and JAXA, is scheduled to launch on 2024-05-28 on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
StarWin’s Leopard-Full Dimensional ESA and LeopardWin-Hybrid ESA terminals operate using Avanti’s HYLAS 4 Ka-band satellite and service.
ESA and the European Commission purchased several Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX to mitigate the launcher shortfall.
ESA completed the Ariane 6 qualification review on 2024-04-29.
The Ariane 6 Launcher Task Force consists of top management from ESA, CNES, ArianeGroup, and Arianespace.
Development and integration of SPAINSAT NG innovative payload elements, including the reconfigurable active transmit and receive X-band antennas and the deployable pallet of individually steerable Ka-band antennas, were supported by the ESA PACIS 3 partnership project.
The ongoing development of Europe's space transportation capabilities involves thousands of talented people working in ESA's 22 Member States.
NASA and the European Space Agency completed an agreement under which NASA will provide hundreds of millions of dollars of support for a European Mars rover mission.
NASA’s confirmed contributions to the Rosalind Franklin mission include throttable braking engines for a new descent stage being developed by ESA and radioisotope heating units that use heat from the decay of plutonium-238 to keep the spacecraft warm.
The agreement formalizes cooperation between NASA and ESA on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission scheduled to launch in 2028.
ESA is developing its own landing system for the Rosalind Franklin rover and awarded a contract worth 522,000,000 EUR to Thales Alenia Space on 2024-04-09 to restart work on the mission.