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.
Avio will launch the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) scientific satellite for ESA and CAS Science on 9 April 2026.
The ESA Council endorsed the EPIC (ESA Provided Institutional Crew) mission concept for the International Space Station.
The ESA Council approved for public release a Status Report on Space Transportation Programmes.
The implementation arrangement signed on 30 October 2025 covers seven demonstrator projects involving Ukrainian scientists, engineers, and companies alongside ESA member states.
ESA Provided Institutional Crew would be a medium-duration mission with an expected stay of approximately one month.
Spanish entities can apply to Phi-Lab Austria because Spain is part of the European Space Agency’s network of thematic laboratories.
The ESA Council renewed Carole Mundell as Director of Science for a second four-year term running until 28 February 2031.
The European Space Agency assigned its security office a record €21 billion in 2025 to implement security framework, space mission security assurance, cyber resilience capabilities, and corporate security over the next five years.
ESA astronauts on the ESA Provided Institutional Crew mission will have responsibilities that include system maintenance and repair, logistics support, and cargo operations.
Canada’s participation was approved in ESA’s ACCESS, ERS-EO, Moonlight, and FutureNAV programmes.
ESA Phi-Labs function as testbeds for commercially viable products.
The approval of Canada’s participation follows Canada’s largest subscription to ESA since Canada began partnering with the agency in 1979.
ESA and interested international partners will collaborate on the EPIC mission concept.
ESA is ready to act as the technical and system-development agency for the EU Space Programme.
Under its current barter agreement with NASA, ESA has secured long-duration missions to the International Space Station for Sophie Adenot and Raphaël Liégeois.
SMILE is a collaboration between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The ESA Council received the first Annual Activity Report from the ESA Ethics Ombudsperson.
ESA announced its newest class of five career astronauts in November 2022.
The European Space Agency’s Cyber Resilience Programme and the experimental Cyber Cube satellite treat security as an integral part of space infrastructure.
ESA plans to implement the ESA Provided Institutional Crew mission with international partners.