European Space Agency |
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8-10 rue Mario Nikis
Paris Cedex 15
F-75738
France
[t] +33 1 5369 7654
[f] +33 1 5369 7560
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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. ESA has 15 Member States. By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, it can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. ESA’s job is to draw up the European space programme and carry it through. The Agency’s projects are designed to find out more about the Earth, its immediate space environment, the solar system and the Universe, as well as to develop satellite-based technologies and services, and to promote European industries. ESA also works closely with space organisations outside Europe to share the benefits of space with the whole of mankind. |
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The European Space Agency and the Australian National University have successfully tested a new design of spacecraft ion engine that dramatically improves performance over present thrusters and marks a major step forward in space propulsion capability. |
12 November 2006 |
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ESA's highly successful XMM-Newton mission was formally given a four-year extension. The longer life necessitated a first-ever in-flight upgrade to the spacecraft's mission control software. |
11 November 2006 |
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Spacecraft must evolve. Advancing space research is no longer just about swapping old components for new, now it is about entirely rethinking what a space mission can do and how it achieves its goals. World experts are gathering at ESA on 21 February to exchange new ideas and stimulate unconventional thinking about space systems. |
10 November 2006 |
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Ocean FOCUS began issuing forecasts, just in time to warn oil production operators of a new warm eddy that has formed in the oil and gas-producing region of the Gulf of Mexico. |
09 November 2006 |
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The technology used in space suits to protect astronauts carrying out space walks in direct sunlight is now being used to develop protective clothing to safeguard firefighters and steel workers who often work in extremely hot and dangerous conditions. |
08 November 2006 |
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The amount of data acquired by satellites is increasing at an exponential rate, and researchers are learning about the value of this data in fighting epidemic outbreaks as a result of ESA’s Epidemio project. |
07 November 2006 |
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A project supported by the European Space Agency has combined satellite multicasting techniques and improved content management to enhance information delivery for education. |
06 November 2006 |
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Polar stratospheric clouds have become the focus of many research projects in recent years due to the discovery of their role in ozone depletion, but essential aspects of these clouds remain a mystery. MIPAS, an instrument onboard ESA’s Envisat, is allowing scientists to gain information about these clouds necessary for modelling ozone loss. |
05 November 2006 |
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Laboratory simulations of the SMART-1 impact performed at the University of Kent, United Kingdom, suggest that the impact may have caused a clearly elongated lunar crater, and produced a high-speed rebounding for the spacecraft. |
05 November 2006 |
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Ground movements are responsible for hundreds of deaths and billions of Euros annually, and the threat they pose is increasing due to urbanisation and land use. ESA's GMES Service Element Programme is backing a project, Terrafirma, to help mitigate these risks. |
05 November 2006 |
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ESA's Planck space telescope was removed last week from the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC, ESA's research and technology centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, after a thorough two-week test in temperatures down to -178 degrees Celsius. The test is an important milestone towards launch in 2008. |
04 November 2006 |
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Scientists have secured their first look at the birth of monstrous stars that shine 100 000 times more brightly than the Sun, thanks to ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory. |
04 November 2006 |
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Using data from ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, an international group of astrophysicists discovered that one spinning neutron star doesn’t appear to be the stable rotator scientists would expect. These X-ray observations promise to give new insights into the thermal evolution and finally the interior structure of neutron stars. |
04 November 2006 |
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A team of young explorers from the Climate Change College are on a ten day field trip, participating in ESA's CryoSat validation experiment on the Greenland Ice Sheet. To stay in touch, the team is using Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network, a technology development supported by ESA. |
03 November 2006 |
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In response to a growing demand for sharpened census data, GeoVille Information Systems has developed ‘real-world population’ maps based on Earth observation, under a contract named EO-STAT awarded by ESA, which can assist the private and public sector in fields such as geomarketing, market research, business location analysis, risk assessment and transport and urban planning. |
03 November 2006 |
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Planetary scientists have discovered the highest clouds above any planetary surface. They found them above Mars using the SPICAM instrument on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The results are a new piece in the puzzle of how the Martian atmosphere works. |
03 November 2006 |
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MetOp-A, the first in a new European series of three meteorological operational satellites designed to monitor the Earth’s atmosphere from polar orbit, is now to be launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. |
03 November 2006 |
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A ceremony took place at the facilities of Snecma Propulsion Solide in Bordeaux, France, to mark the occasion of the delivery of the first nozzle for the P80 solid rocket motor. The P80 is the first stage of the Vega small launcher. |
02 November 2006 |
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An Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites into geostationary transfer orbits. Lift-off of flight V172 took place at 22:15 GMT/UTC (19:15 local time, 00:15 / 12 August CEST/Paris). The satellites were accurately injected into the correct transfer orbits about 30 minutes later. |
02 November 2006 |
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The continuing disintegration of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has allowed ESA scientists to see into the interior of the comet. Using a revolutionary camera attached to the ESA Optical Ground Station on Tenerife, they have followed the detailed twists and turns of various comet fragments. |
02 November 2006 |
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In response to concerns from hospitals to prepare for eventual pandemic flu outbreaks, the French company AirInSpace, with support from ESA's Technology Transfer Programme, has successfully adapted technology developed to protect astronauts for use in critical care centres to protect immune-deficient patients against airborne pathogens such as the avian flu virus. |
02 November 2006 |
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If Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle encounters difficulties during rendezvous with the International Space Station, some highly sophisticated software will be on-hand to take over operations and avoid a potentially dangerous situation. |
01 November 2006 |
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Thanks to data from ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray satellite, a team of international scientists found a comet-like ball of gas over a thousand million times the mass of the Sun hurling through a distant galaxy cluster at over 750 kilometres per second. |
01 November 2006 |
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Proba-3 is the third in ESA’s series of missions for validating developments in space systems while carrying an ‘added value’ user payload which can directly benefit from the innovations under test. |
01 November 2006 |
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The WEU Assembly and the European Interparliamentary Space Conference are jointly holding a conference on space, defence and European security in Kourou, French Guiana, at the invitation of the European Space Agency, the French space agency and Arianespace. |
01 November 2006 |
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Recent observations from the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton Observatory and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have uncovered evidence that helps to confirm the identification of the remains of one of the earliest stellar explosions recorded by humans. |
31 October 2006 |
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The first meeting of the Telemedicine Task Force for sub-Saharan Africa was held in Brussels. In the conclusions of the Telemedicine workshop held in Brussels, where the potential of satellite telecommunication technology was demonstrated as a tool for supporting healthcare systems in sub-Saharan Africa, it was declared that a complete picture of the telemedicine opportunities offered by feasible and affordable applications in sub-Saharan Africa is very much needed. |
31 October 2006 |
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Space is fizzing. Above our heads, where the Earth’s magnetic field meets the constant stream of gas from the Sun, thousands of bubbles of superheated gas are constantly growing and popping. |
31 October 2006 |
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Space Shuttle Discovery successfully landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 15:14 CEST (13:14 UT) today. Discovery returned with one crewmember less than at the start of the STS-121 mission, ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter will remain on board the International Space Station for six months for the Astrolab Mission. |
30 October 2006 |
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As part of ESA's ambitious, long-term Aurora exploration programme, ExoMars will search for traces of life on Mars. The mission requires entirely new technologies for self-controlled robots, built-in autonomy and cutting-edge visual terrain sensors. |
30 October 2006 |
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Satellite solutions can make all the difference to the efficiency of telemedicine. With this in mind, ESA is preparing a European telemedicine via satellite programme which will be of direct benefit to the healthcare community. |
30 October 2006 |
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Satellite images acquired have shown for the first time dramatic openings, over a geographic extent larger than the size of the British Isles, in the Arctic’s perennial sea ice pack north of Svalbard, and extending into the Russian Arctic all the way to the North Pole. |
30 October 2006 |
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Once a spacecraft is in orbit, engineers have virtually no chance of repairing anything that breaks. But what if a spacecraft could fix itself? |
20 January 2006 |
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The second member of Europe’s new generation of weather satellites has successfully been lifted onto orbit, continuing an uninterrupted series of launch successes since 1977. |
21 December 2005 |
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A look at MARES, the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System, a pioneering new instrument for neuromuscular and exercise research on the International Space Station. |
31 October 2005 |
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Space has come down to Earth for this week's legendary Fastnet regatta. Competitor Marc Thiercelin's 20-metre Pro-Form yacht boasts lighter batteries, more efficient solar cells and advanced energy management systems - all spin-offs from Europe's space programmes. |
10 August 2005 |
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Drilling holes on other planets and inventing novel textiles to secure large structures in space are just two of the 27 challenges that expert teams have been working on in the first year of ESA's Innovation Triangle Initiative. |
16 June 2005 |
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An artificial eye developed for Earth observation is now being
employed to recognise colour variations in dyed fabrics: a
critical element of textile production. This could significantly
reduce the 160 million metres of dyed fabrics discarded annually
in Europe with high environmental costs. |
16 February 2005 |
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When the non-profit organisation IdéeVerte Compétition decided to create a 'green' racing car, they turned to space technology to make it safer. |
15 November 2004 |
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Innovative uses for plastics, rubber and their derivatives will be on display next week in Düsseldorf, at the world's leading trade fair for plastics and rubber, K2004. A team from ESA will be present to show visitors how these commonplace materials can be used in space – and how this can lead to new technology for use on Earth.
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13 October 2004 |
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'Henri Pescarolo demonstrated once again last week-end that innovative
technologies we originally developed for our spacecraft can be put to work in
automobiles improving both performance and safety,' says Pierre Brisson, Head of
ESA's Technology Transfer and Promotion Office. |
25 September 2003 |
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'Europe has a yearly budget of approximately 400 million Euro for space technology research and development. ESA provides half of this budget, while the rest is going through national channels,' said Hans Kappler, ESA Director of Industrial Matters and Technology Programmes. 'It is very obvious this investment has to be harmonised in order to avoid unnecessary duplications of activities and fill strategic gaps.' |
30 June 2003 |
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