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.
Heads of ESA and Roscosmos were scheduled to meet on 2020-03-12 to jointly agree next steps for the ExoMars project following a progress report.
In 2018 Jan Woerner negotiated a two-year extension to his first ESA term to avoid a transition while the agency prepared for the Space19+ ministerial meeting.
Jan Woerner sent an email to ESA staff on 2020-02-01 in which he wrote that he did not want to repeat what took place in 2018, when he claims he was targeted by a campaign from unspecified individuals seeking to erode his standing.
On 2020-02-03 Jan Woerner posted a blog in which he wrote that, as long as ESA member states place their trust in him as Director General, he would work for ESA and adapt it to the rapidly changing environment.
Jan Woerner decided not to seek another term as ESA Director General when his current term expires in July 2021.
At the Space19+ ministerial meeting, ESA member states agreed to provide nearly €12.6 billion over three years to back the agency’s major initiatives.
ESA’s ExoMars 2020 mission has experienced problems with its parachutes and faces tests to determine if it can launch on a Russian Proton rocket in 2020 or must wait until 2022.
ClearSpace received a European Space Agency contract in December to deorbit a derelict rocket upper stage in 2025.
Solar Orbiter is equipped with a sunshield that is based on the sunshield used by ESA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury.
The ESA/NASA Ulysses mission, launched in 1990, previously observed the sun’s poles but did not carry a camera.
The Solar Orbiter spacecraft has a mass of 1,800 kg and was built by Airbus Defence and Space for the European Space Agency.
In a 2020-02-03 blog post Jan Woerner committed to remain as ESA Director General as long as he receives the trust of ESA member states.
Jan Woerner sent a 2020-02-01 email to ESA staff referring to a 2018 process during which he was targeted by a campaign to erode his standing.
ESA is responsible for the Sentinel-6 satellite, which is being built by Airbus Defence and Space.
QinetiQ received a €75 million ($82,600,000) contract from the European Space Agency to build a small satellite for ozone measurements.
The first of the 2017-ordered Ariane 62 launches slipped to 2021 due to a disagreement between ArianeGroup and the European Space Agency that delayed the start of serial production until April 2019.
The European Space Agency is financing 89% of Ariane 6’s 3.6-billion-euro development cost, with industry providing the remainder.
Jan Woerner, director general of the European Space Agency, supports maintaining the original 16,000,000,000 EUR budget for 2021–2027 to fund Copernicus and Galileo joint programs with the EU.
The World Economic Forum selected a group in May 2019 that included the European Space Agency, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, and Bryce Space and Technology to develop a Space Sustainability Rating system.
The European Union contributes 23 percent of ESA’s 2020 budget to cover work on the Copernicus Earth observation program and the Galileo satellite navigation system.