About ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. ESA is an international organization with 22 Member States and was established in 1975. ESA's headquarters are located in Paris, France, and it employs around 2,547 people globally as of 2023.. The agency's annual budget for 2024 is €7.8 billion

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ESA's space flight program includes human spaceflight, mainly through participation in the International Space Station program, as well as the launch and operation of crewless exploration missions to other planets and the Moon.

 

The agency is also involved in Earth observation, science, telecommunication, designing launch vehicles, and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. ESA collaborates with other national space agencies such as NASA, JAXA, CNES, ASI, DLR, and CNSA on various missions.

 

Some of its notable missions include the Hera asteroid mission, the Sentinel-2C satellite, and the Euclid space telescope. ESA has recently opened the new LUNA facility at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany. This facility simulates lunar surface conditions for future moon missions, such as the Artemis lunar exploration program led by NASA. ESA's JUICE spacecraft, which is on its way to explore Jupiter and its moons, confirmed that Earth is habitable during a flyby on August 20, 2024. The spacecraft detected water and other essential elements in Earth's atmosphere. 

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