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.
ESA awarded OHB a €280 million contract in October 2024 to develop and build a pair of satellites for the Harmony mission.
The ESA Ariane 64 launch vehicle used Avio auxiliary motors in a successful mission.
ESA identified Vega C as the Harmony mission’s baseline launch vehicle in June 2025.
Simonetta Cheli is Director of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency's Earth observation center.
The European Space Agency studied five sectors based on their reliance on satellite communications and used an economic model to estimate losses in gross value added and connectivity benefits.
London Economics prepared a report for the European Space Agency on the effects of a hypothetical week-long outage of satellite communications across ESA member states and Canada.
On April 30, the European Space Agency released a study on the economic risks of satellite communications outages in ESA member states and Canada.
Around 2.2 million individuals in ESA member states and Canada could be left without internet access during a satellite communications outage.
Emergency messaging systems in ESA member states and Canada could stop operating without satellite connectivity, and the economic cost in that area is estimated at around €352.7 million.
Gateway includes the pressurized HALO module developed by Northrop Grumman and the I-HAB module developed by the European Space Agency.
Thales Alenia Space said the I-HAB module has a similar problem and it is working with the European Space Agency to resolve it soon.
Thales Alenia Space was selected by the European Space Agency to build the pressure-vessel structures for the HALO and I-HAB modules at its plants in Italy.
Gateway is a NASA-led program to place a space station in lunar orbit with cooperation from the European Space Agency, JAXA, and CSA.
The European Space Agency considers the I-HAB defect technically manageable and not an insurmountable obstacle for the module.
The European Space Agency has assigned GMV responsibility for all future Copernicus missions over the next 15 years.
The European Space Agency entrusted GMV with the operational development of mission planning functions for Copernicus expansion missions.
If successful, the Rosalind Franklin mission will be ESA’s first soft landing on the surface of Mars.
The European Space Agency completed a more than 79-hour sterilisation of the parachute for its Rosalind Franklin rover.
ESA awarded Thales Alenia Space a €522 million framework contract in April 2024 for maintenance and upgrade of elements already built for the mission and for development of the Entry, Descent, and Landing Module.
ESA’s first Mars landing attempt, the Schiaparelli lander, was a joint mission with Roscosmos that crashed on Mars in 2016.