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.
Thales Alenia Space signed a €26.1 million Phase 1 contract with the European Space Agency for development of the LISA mission telescopes.
ESA selected Thales Alenia Space to lead Phase 1 of development for six LISA telescopes.
ESA awarded OHB a €839 million contract in June 2025 to develop the three spacecraft for LISA.
Copernicus is a collaboration among EU member states, the ESA, Eumetsat, and other European organizations.
ESA is developing Sentinel-1 Next Generation to ensure continuity of measurements into the mid-2030s and beyond.
ESA selected LISA as its third Large-Class mission in July 2017.
3DMM from Sapienza Università di Roma's Lab. Space Biomedicine was selected for a four-month path with ESA BIC Lazio.
Edge Aerospace will study the commercial viability of orbital-compute power under the ESA Space Cloud agreement.
GroupSat and TRUE SIGHT, both from Politecnico di Torino, were selected for a six-month pre-incubation path with ESA BIC Turin.
Simonetta Cheli is Director of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency and Head of ESA/ESRIN.
ESA plans to launch both Harmony satellites in 2029 aboard a single Vega C Block 2 rocket with the P160C booster upgrade.
The European Space Agency published a Request for Information on Ariane 62 launch services for the Harmony mission in Q4 2029 or Q1 2030.
ESA expects the P160C upgrade to be used first aboard an Ariane 64 later in 2026.
IRIDE is an Italian Earth observation constellation coordinated by the European Space Agency with support from the Italian Space Agency and backed by Italy’s PNRR investment.
ESA has linked the delay in the Vega C P160C upgrade to the fact that the planned Vega C mission would not require additional performance and to the need to dedicate initial P160C manufacturing capacity to Ariane 6 missions.
FrontierSat received distinct backing from the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency’s Fly Your Satellite! program.
ESA’s Request for Information asked Arianespace for options for both a dedicated launch and a shared Harmony mission with additional payloads.
FrontierSat carries a Mini Plasma Imager based on technology from ESA’s Swarm mission.
Luca Parmitano is an ESA astronaut and a former commander of the International Space Station.
ESA expects the first Vega C flight with the P160C booster not to occur until 2028 and to carry the first flight of the reusable Space Rider spacecraft.