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.
The European Space Agency’s Aeolus satellite executed collision-avoidance maneuvers in low Earth orbit in September 2019 due to a close pass by a SpaceX Starlink satellite.
The European Space Agency’s Space Safety Programme Office reports an average of about 100,000 kg of mass reentering in an uncontrolled way per year, corresponding to about 50–60 individual events per year.
The SSMS rideshare service was developed with the support of the European space industry and funded by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The European Space Agency awarded each of the three startups 500,000 EUR in November 2020 as part of the agency’s Boost! initiative.
LuxSpace developed the ESAIL satellite on its Triton-2 platform in collaboration with the European Space Agency and exactEarth.
Isar Aerospace was awarded €1.5 million as part of the European Space Agency’s Boost! initiative a month before its December Series B funding round.
ESA director of operations Rolf Densing reported that coordination with SpaceX has improved since 2019 and that ESA and SpaceX have established a bilateral modus vivendi for close cooperation to avoid repeat incidents.
Nauka includes a European robotic arm that ESA astronauts on the ISS, including Thomas Pesquet who is part of Crew-2, will help commission to support exterior scientific research and relocation of modules on the Russian segment.
ESA’s Scout mission concept adopts an agile development process with the aim of implementing a Scout mission from kick-off to launch within three years and for a maximum of 30,000,000 EUR.
Euroconsult has been commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA) to conduct a study on the future of the European space transportation sector.
ESA's New European Space Transportation Solutions initiative prepares for the future beyond Ariane 6 and Vega-C.
Thales Alenia Space has been selected by the European Space Agency on behalf of the European Commission in the Horizon 2020 Satellite Navigation Program (HSNAV) to develop the Advanced Orbit Determination and Time Synchronization (A-OATP) Algorithms Test Platform.
Ground tests for UltraAir are expected to start in early 2022 in Tenerife, Spain using the ESA Optical Ground Station to connect to the Alphasat satellite.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Crew-2 is scheduled to launch 2021-04-22 to transport NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, ESA’s Thomas Pesquet, and JAXA’s Akihiko Hoshide to the ISS.
The European Union cooperates with the European Space Agency on the Galileo satellite navigation program and the Copernicus Earth observation satellite series.
One ESA Agenda 2025 priority is developing space safety and security programs within the European Space Agency.
ESA Agenda 2025 frames upcoming retirements as both a loss of expertise and an opportunity to recruit people with knowledge in other domains and to improve diversity and gender balance in the agency’s workforce.
The European Space Agency released the ESA Agenda 2025 document on 2021-04-07.
ESA Agenda 2025 outlines three methods to support European commercial space activities: encouraging talent to stay in Europe, improving contracting mechanisms and partnerships to provide demand for startups, and speeding up ESA’s interactions with companies.
Josef Aschbacher and Thierry Breton jointly signed a letter expressing intent to negotiate an agreement on the Financial Framework Partnership Agreement between the European Space Agency and the European Union.