European Space Agency

This article is about the European Space Agency. For other meanings of ESA, see ESA (disambiguation).

The European Space Agency (ESA; established 1975) is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to exploration of space with currently 16 memberstates. Its headquarters are in Paris, France. ESA has a staff (excluding sub-contractors and national space agencies) of about 1,900 with a budget of 3 billion euros in 2005.

ESA's spaceport is the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, a site chosen because it is close to the equator from were commercially important orbits are easier to access. During the era of Ariane 4 ESA gained the position of market leader in commercial space launches and in recent years ESA has established itself as the major competitor of NASA in space exploration.

ESA Science missions are based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands, Earth Observation missions at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy and ESA Mission Control (ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany.

Contents

1 History and ultimate goals 1.1 ESA's mission 1.2 History of ESA's foundation 1.3 From the first beginnings to a leading institution 1.4 ESA's further goals and aims 2 Member countries, budget and organisations 2.1 Member countries and strategic partners 2.2 Budget 2.3 Notable national space agencies 3 Launch vehicle fleet 3.1 Ariane 5 3.2 Soyuz launch vehicle 3.3 Vega 4 Human space flight 4.1 History 4.2 ESA Astronaut Corps 4.3 ESA's own manned launch vehicles 5 ESA projects 5.1 International Space Station 5.2 Current projects already launched 5.3 Current projects to be launched in the near future 5.4 Future projects 5.5 Past projects 6 Field installations 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

History and ultimate goals

• European Space Agency History 1958-1987 Volume I 458 pages PDF (http://www.esa.int/esapub/sp/sp1235/sp1235v1web.pdf)
• European Space Agency History 1958-1987 Volume II 691 pages PDF (http://www.esa.int/esapub/sp/sp1235/sp1235v2web.pdf)

ESA's mission

Since the cold war ended with the fall of the iron curtain space agencies around the world had to refocus and revise their visions and goals. In an interview with JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, Jean-Jacques Dordain ESA's Director General (since 2003) outlined briefly the European Space agency's mission:

Today space activities are pursued for the benefit of citizens, and citizens are asking for a better quality of life on earth. They want greater security and economic wealth, but they also want to pursue their dreams, to increase their knowledge, and they want younger people to be attracted to the pursuit of science and technology.

I think that space can do all of this: it can produce a higher quality of life, better security, more economic wealth, and also fulfill our citizens' dreams and thirst for knowledge, and attract the young generation. This is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be even more important in the future. Template:Ref

History of ESA's foundation

After the Second World War many European Scientists had left Europe in order to work either in the US or the Soviet Union. Although the booming recovering process of the 50s made it possible for European countries to invest into research and specifically into space related activities, European scientists realised solely national projects would not be able to compete with the two major superpowers. In 1958, only months after the Sputnik shock, Eduardo Amaldi and Pierre Auger, two prominent members of the European scientific community at that time, met to discuss the foundation of a common European Space agency.

The European nations decided to have two different agencies, one concerned to develop a launch system ELDO (European Launch Development Organization) and the precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation) that was established on March 20, 1964 per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962. From 1968 to 1972 ESRO could celebrate its first successes. Seven research satellites were brought into orbit, all by US launch systems.

The ESRO's successor organisation ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Centre, based in Noordwijk, the Netherlands) is still a part of ESA, though ESA itself is a much bigger organisation today. ESA in its current form was founded in 1974, when ESRO was merged with ELDO. ESA was constituted of 11 founding members including not only then EU-members (correctly stated: EC-members) but also Switzerland and Norway. ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emmissions in the universe.

From the first beginnings to a leading institution

From the seventies onwards, when the space race between the US and the Soviet Union had tuned down and space budgets were cut dramatically in both superpowers, ESA's time had come to establish itself as a forerunner in space exploration. In 1978 the IUE, the world's first high-orbit telescope, was shot into space by ESA. After many successful Earth-orbit projects, ESA started Giotto in 1986, its first deep-space mission that studied the Comets Hall and Grigg-Skejllerup. The following milestones include Hipparcos in 1989, a star mapper mission, followed in the 1990s by projects such as SOHO, Ulysses and the Hubble telescope all jointly carried out with NASA. Recent scientific missions in cooperation with NASA include the Cassini-Huygens spaceprobe where ESA contributed by building the Titan-landing module Huygens.

Being the successor of the ELDO, ESA also started to construct rockets primarily for unmanned scientific and commercial payloads. The family of rockets started with Ariane 1 that was first launched in 1979 and brought payloads, mostly commercial satellites, into orbit from 1984 onwards. The two next developments of the Ariane rocket were just mere middle stages for a more advanced launch system, the Ariane 4 that operated between 1988 and 2003 and could establish ESA's world leadership in commercial space launches. However its successor the currently used Ariane 5 rocket had starting problems. The first launch of the lightest variation of Ariane 5 in 1996 failed as did the first flight of the Ariane 5 ECA, a heavy modification of Ariane, in 2002. Despite these failures the Ariane 5 rocket has established itself within the heavily competitive commercial space launch market since its first successful flight in 1997 and prospectively will reach 25 successful launches in 2006.

The beginning of the new millenium saw ESA's rise as to the main competitor in scientific space research to NASA. While ESA had relied on cooperation with NASA during the last decades, especially in the 1990s, changed circumstances (such as tough restrictions on information sharing by American military technology law) led to decisions to rely more on itself and on cooperations with Russia and other strategic partners. A recent press issue thus stated: Russia is ESA's first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. There is a framework agreement between ESA and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation and partnership in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and cooperation is already underway in two different areas of launcher activity that will bring benefits to both partners. Template:Ref Most notable for its new self-confidence are ESA's own recent successful missions Smart-1, a probe testing cutting-edge new space propulsion technology, the Mars Express mission as well as the development of the Ariane 5 rocket.

ESA's further goals and aims

ESA has ambitious space plans that may be divided into three large categories. First, ESA will maintain its scientific and research projects (e.g. tests and developments of new propulsion systems), try to find ways to reduce costs for their rocket fleet while enhancing their capacities, honour its commitments regarding the ISS and engage in further space exploration like the Venus Express mission that will launch in late 2005. The second category has many parallels to NASA's plans and constitutes of astronomy-space missions such as the Planck probe studying the cosmic microwave background (2007), the Herschel space observatory (2006), Corot that will be a milestone in the search for exoplanets and is due to launch in June 2006 or the Darwin interferometer. Darwin will mark the last step in the ultimate goal of discovering more exoplanets and the first Earth-size planet outside our solar system.

While the projects discribed above are more or less similar in their structure and aim as NASA's and other space agencies' plans, the ESA's Mars project is different. The Aurora Programme lays out a timeplan for future missions to Mars, however in contrast to NASA's plans there is no emphasis on manned or unmanned lunar missions, it rather includes several flagship missions designed to develop and test technology needed for a manned European mars mission currently planned for 2030. Among these flagship missions is ExoMars, a mission involving a Mars rover. Until 2005 ExoMars was planned to be a joint mission between NASA and ESA, however obstacles such as American technology Law that prohibits sharing of classified space technology information led to ESA deciding to go for it alone. The mission is currently planned to launch in 2011. An even more ambitious mars project is the Mars Sample Return Mission, that is planned as a follow-up mission to ExoMars. It will involve the first time a probe will return of samples from another planet, making it necessary to construct an ascent modul that is capable of starting into Mars orbit and dock with the original probe.

Member countries, budget and organisations

Member countries and strategic partners

ESA comprises the national space organisations and other entities of these sixteen countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Many countries are likely to join ESA in the coming years, especially the countries who were part of the EU-enlargement in 2004. In addition ESA entered into important partnership agreements with non-European countries:

• Luxembourg is expected to become a full ESA Member State on 9 December 2005.
• Hungary and the Czech Republic signed the five-year Plan for European Cooperating State (PECS), that is aimed at preparing the states for full membership. Their firms can bid for and receive contracts to work on programmes. The countries can participate in almost all programmes, except for the Basic Technology Research Programme. The membership fees are much lower than with full membership.
• Poland and Romania are likely to be the next to sign PECS documents.
• Since January 1, 1979, Canada has the special status of cooperating state with the ESA. By virtue of this accord, Canada takes part in ESA's deliberative bodies and decision-making and also in ESA's programmes and activities. Canadian firms can bid for and receive contracts to work on programmes. The accord has a provision ensuring a fair industrial return to Canada. See also: Canadian Space Agency
• ESA has entered into a major joint venture with Russia (see below).
• Since China started to invest more money into space activities, the Chinese Space Agency has sought international partnerships. ESA is, beside the Russian Space Agency, one of its most important partners. Recently the two space agencies cooperated in the development of the Double Star Mission.

Currently, ESA is not within the structures of the European Union (EU) — note that its membership contains non-EU countries such as Switzerland and Norway. There are ties between the organisations, with various agreements in place and being worked on, to establish the legal status of ESA with regard to the EU Template:Ref. There are common goals between ESA and the EU, and ESA has an EU liaison office in Brussels. The EU in particular wishes to secure political control of Europe's space access, an issue of vital importance for Europe's political and economic role in the world.

Budget

The budget of ESA was announced as 2.977 billion Euro for 2005. This constitutes a 10 percent increase in the budget in comparison with 2004. The increase will be largely invested in ESA's launch vehicles that are currently the most expensive part of ESA's activities (22 percent of the budget go into launch vehicles; human space flight is second in budget expenditures). In 2005 the three largest contributors, together funding 2/3 of ESA's budget, are France (29.3 percent), Germany (22.7 percent) and Italy (14.2 percent). Template:Ref

In comparison with NASA's budget of 16 billion $ (ca. 13 billion Euro), ESA's budget of 3 billion Euro superficially looks considerable less. However in order to make a true comparison more factors have to be considered:

• (1) Unlike the US, Europe maintains both ESA and national space agencies (see below). These national space agencies do have considerable budgets provided for scientific research and joint projects with ESA. For instance, the German DLR has a budget for 2005 of 760 million Euros Template:Ref and the French CNES had a budget of 1.3 billion Euro in 2004. Taking the budgets of all national space agencies together and adding them to ESA's figures would at least double the amount spent by Europe for space related activities.

• (2) Considerable costs are incurred by NASA in maintaining the aging Space Shuttle. A single Space Shuttle launch costs more than 600 million dollars and during the last decades up to 1/3 of NASA's budget had to be invested in the Shuttle to keep it flying (for 2005 5 billion are allocated for the Space Shuttle constituting 30 % of the budget Template:Ref). Although ESA had plans for an own manned spacecraft such as Hermes, it has never actually developed or maintained a manned launch system, rather it has paid for seats on the American and Russian spacecrafts, and therefore was and is not burdened with the costs of human spaceflights. In the last years ESA has become interested in the Russian built but jointly owned Soyuz (controlled by Starsem it is owned by EADS, ESA and the Russian Space Agency) that is capable of human spaceflight and will further decrease costs for European manned missions (see below). One Soyuz launch costs approximately 30 million USD Template:Ref

• (3) While NASA's funding of many research projects has been cut in the recent years and months in order to free money for the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle and for the retirement of the Space Shuttle, ESA's investment in research and development projects has increased steadily in the last years. With the joining of new ESA memberstates the budget is likely to increase further by a large rate in the next years.

• (4) After the space race activities of the 60s and early 70s NASA has maintained a huge administration and bureaucracy that still burdens both current projects and NASA budgets. ESA was never involved in large-scale political activity such as the space race, it therefore has always had a small and efficient structure and agency level comparable to a private company.

In comparison to other space agencies, ESA and NASA are in another budget league, with the japanese JAXA having annual funds of 1.6 billion Euros at its disposal Template:Ref taking the third place, followed by the ambitious Chinese Space Agency with around 1 billion. Although the Russian Space Agency is still considered as one of the most experienced space agencies, its budget is dramatically low reaching not more than 800-900 million USD per year Template:Ref approximately the same amount the Indian Space Agency can rely on.

Notable national space agencies

• The Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) (National Centre for Space Study) is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public establishment of industrial and commercial character"). Its headquarters are in central Paris.
• The Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana or ASI) was founded in 1988 to promote, coordinate and conduct space activities in Italy. Operating under the Ministry of the Universities and of Scientific and Technological Research, the agency cooperates with numerous entities active in space technology and with the president of the Council of Ministers. Internationally, the ASI provides Italy's delegation to the Council of the European Space Agency and to its subordinate bodies.
• The German Aerospace Center (DLR) (German: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.) is the national research centre for aviation and space flight of the Federal Republic of Germany and of other member states in the Helmholtz Association. Its extensive research and development projects are included in national and international cooperative programmes. In addition to its research projects, the centre is the assigned space agency of Germany bestowing headquarters of German space flight activities and its associates.

Launch vehicle fleet

ESA has made great progress towards its goal of having a complete fleet of launch vehicles in service, competing in all sectors of the launch market. ESA's fleet will soon consist of three major rocket designs, Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega. Rocket launches are carried through by Arianespace a subsidiary of ESA (a minority share is held by EADS as well) at ESA's spaceport in French Guiana. Because many communication satellites do have a equatorial orbit launches from French Guiana are able to take larger payloads into space than from other northern spaceports.

Ariane 5

Ariane 5 constitutes the whole pride of ESA's rocket fleet. Its maximum payload estimates to 6-10 metric tons to GTO and up to 21 metric tons to LEO. The launch craft is in service since 1997 and replaced the Ariane 4. The Ariane rocket exists in several specifications, the heaviest one of these is the Ariane 5 ECA that has been successfully launched in February 2005 for the first time, after it failed during its first test flight in 2002. Template:Ref

ESA's Ariane 1, 2, 3 and 4 launchers (the latter of which was ESA's long time workhorse) have been retired.

Soyuz launch vehicle

Soyuz is a Russian medium payload (ca. 3 metric tons to GTO) launcher to be brought into ESA service in 2007 Template:Ref.ESA has entered into a 340 million euro joint venture with the Russian Federal Space Agency over the use of the Soyuz launcher Template:Ref. Under the agreement, the Russian agency will manufacture Soyuz rocket parts for ESA, which will then be shipped to French Guiana for assembly. ESA benefits because it gains a medium payloads launcher, complementing its fleet while saving on development costs. In addition, the Soyuz rocket — which has been the Russian's space launch workhorse for some 40 years — is proven technology with a good safety record, which ESA might be happy to use for launching humans into space. Russia also benefits in that it will get access to the Kourou launch site. Launching from Kourou rather than Baikonur will allow the Russians to almost double the Soyuz payload (3.0 tons vs. 1.7 tons), because of Kourou's closer proximity to the equator. Both sides benefit from the long term strategic cooperation that in addition will be used to jointly develop future technology. It might be worth noting that France (which is with 30 % the largest contributor to ESA) has historically had good relations with Russia, what contributed in reaching this agreement. (See EuroNews report about the joint venture (http://stream1.euronews.net:8080/ramgen/mag/space-soyouz-en.rm?usehostname) (Real video stream).)

Vega

Vega is ESA's small payload (ca. 1.5 metric tons to 700km orbit) launcher; its first launch is planned for 2007 Template:Ref. The leading ESA's memberstate for the Vega-program is Italy contributing 65 % of the costs. Vega itself has been designed to be a body launcher with three solid propulsion stages and an additional liquid propulsion upper module to place the cargo into the exact orbit intended. For a small-cargo rocket it is remarkable that Vega will be able to place multiple payloads into orbit.

See also: ESA's Vega Brochure (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/VEGAbrochure.pdf)

Human space flight

History

At the time ESA was formed its main goals did not encompass human space flight, rather it considered itself to be primarily a scientific research organization for unmanned space exploration in constrast to its American and Soviet counterparts. It is therefore not surprising that the first European in space was not an ESA astronaut on a European space craft: It was Czechoslovakian Vladimir Remek who in 1978 became the first European in space - on a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, followed by the East German Sigmund Jähn in the same year. This Soviet cooperation progam named Intercosmos primarily involved the partizipation of Eastern block countries, however in 1982 Jean-Loup Chrétien became the first western European cosmonaut on a flight to the Soviet Salyut 7 spacestation.

Because Chrétien did not officially fly into space as an ESA astronaut, but rather as a member of the French CNES astraunaut corps, the German Ulf Merbold is considered the first ESA astronaut ever to fly into space. He participated in the STS-9 space shuttle mission that included the first use of the European built Spacelab in 1983. STS-9 marked the beginning of an intensive ESA/NASA joint partnership that included dozens of spaceflights of ESA astronauts in the following years. Beside paying for seats on the Space Shuttle ESA continued its human space flight cooperation with the Soviet Union and later Russia, including numerous visits to Mir.

During the latter half of the 1980s European human space flights changed from being the exception to rather constituting a routine and therefore in 1990 the European Astronaut Centre that is situated in Cologne, Germany was established. It selects and trains prospective astronauts and is responsible for the coordination with international parterns especially with regards to the International Space Station. As of 2005 the ESA corps officially counts 14 members, including nationals from all big European countries except the United Kingdom.

ESA Astronaut Corps

Pedro Duque (E), Gerhard Thiele (D), Jean-Francois Clervoy (F), Umberto Guidoni (I), Leopold Eyharts (F), Reinhold Ewald (D), Roberto Vittori (I), Claude Nicollier (CH). Paolo Nespoli (I), Thomas Reiter (D), Christer Fuglesang (S), Frank De Winne (B), Michel Tognini (F), Hans Schlegel, Philippe Perrin (F), André Kuipers (NL).

ESA astronauts to have visited the ISS are:

• U. Guidoni (I), ESA, 9th ISS flight (6A) Raffaello MPLM, STS-100/ISS, 19/04/01 - 01/05/01
• C. Haigneré (F), CNES Andromède, Soyuz/ISS, 21/10/01 - 31/10/01
• R. Vittori (I), ASI Marco Polo, Soyuz/ISS, 25/04/02 - 05/05/02
• Perrin (F), NASA/ESA, ISS assembly flight UF-2, STS-111/ISS, 05/06/02 - 19/06/02
• F. De Winne (B), ESA, Odissea, Soyuz/ISS, 30/10/02 - 10/11/02
• P. Duque (E), ESA, Cervantes, Soyuz/ISS 18/10/03 - 28/10/03
• A. Kuipers (NL), ESA, DELTA Mission, 8S/ISS, 19/04/04 - 30/04/04
• R. Vittori (I), ASI Eneide, Soyuz/ISS, 15/04/05 - 25/04/05

ESA's own manned launch vehicles

In the 1980s France pressed for an independent European manned launch vehicle. Around 1985 it was decided to persue a reuseable spacecraft model and starting in November 1987 a project to create a mini-shuttle by the name of Hermes was introduced. The craft itself was modelled comparable to the first proposals of the Space Shuttle and should constitute a small reuseable spaceship that would carry 3 to 5 astronauts and 3 to 4 metric tons of payload for scientic experiments. With a total maximum weight of 21 metric tons it would have started from the parallely developed Ariane 5 rocket. It was planned solely for use in LEO space flights. The planning and pre-development phase concluded in 1991, however the production phase was never fully implemented because at that time the political landscape had changed significantly. With the fall of the Soviet Union ESA looked forward to a cooperation with Russia to built a next-generation human space vehicle. Thus the Hermes program was cancelled in 1995 after about 3 billion dollars had been invested.

In the 21st century ESA started new programs in order to create an own manned spacecraft, most notably among its various projects and proposal is Hopper where a prototype built by EADS called Phoenix has already been tested. While projects such as Hopper are neither concrete nor to be realized within the next decade, a more interesting possibily has emerged recently. After talks with the Russian Space Agency in 2004 and June 2005 Template:Ref a cooperation between ESA and the Russian Space Agency was announced to jointly work on the Russian designed Kliper shuttle, a reuseable spacecraft that would be available for space travel beyond mere LEO (e.g. the moon or even Mars). Kliper constitutes the Russian counterpart to the American Crew Exploration Vehicle proposal and is currently in a more advanced stage of development. It is speculated that Europe will finance the bulk of the development costs of an estimated 3 billion dollars (Europe's contribution may amount to 1.8 billion dollars over the next years) and that Kliper will be jointly built and later be able to take off both from French Guiana and Baikonur. With ESA's participation expected to be approved in December 2005, Kliper may see its first launch as early as 2011. With regard to the rocket that will be used for its launch, the Ariane 5 as a heavy lifter, looks to be more than capable of launching the 13ton Kliper into LEO, however as with the American CEV questions remain how it will be launched to destinations beyond LEO. Today the only viable rocket that would be able to launch either the CEV or Kliper into a lunar trajectory or to Mars is the Russian built Energia rocket that was successfully launched two times in the early 1990s, but has been suspended in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union.

ESA projects

International Space Station

With regard to the ISS ESA is not representing all its memberstates: 5 of the 16 countries have opted out because of either concerns on the expenses of the project or lack of interest. ESA is taking part in the construction and operation of the ISS with its major contribution the Columbus orbital facility, a science laboratory module that will be brought into orbit after NASA's Space Shuttle goes back into service. The current estimates for the ISS are approaching 100 billion USD in total (development, construction and 10 years of maintaining the station) of which ESA has committed itself to pay 8 billion Euro Template:Ref. About 90 percent of the costs of ESA's ISS share will be contributed by Germany (41 percent), France (28 percent) and Italy (20 percent). German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter will be the first long-term ISS crewmember in late 2005.

As of 2005, the spacecrafts that establish the supply link to the ISS are the Progress and Soyuz spacecrafts as well as the Space Shuttle. The European Space Agency has started to construct a space freighter for the ISS, the ATV, an Automated Transfer vehicle with a cargo capacity of 8 metric tons that will be serving the ISS beginning 2006 Template:Ref. With the Space Shuttle reaching its retirement age in 2010 and until NASA will have a replacement for it (the CEV is at the moment not expected to make its first operational manned flight before 2014 – although plans are currently under way to push the development to an earlier date), the ATV together with Progress, Soyuz and the japanese transporter HTV (that is yet to be developed) will be the only link between Earth and the ISS.

Current projects already launched

• ERS-2 is an earth-observing satellite launched in 1995. It is the successor to ERS-1.
• Envisat is the world's largest and most complex environmental satellite.
• XMM-Newton an X-ray observatory satellite.
• Cluster-2 a group of four probes studying the magnetosphere.
• Artemis Europe's most advanced telecommunication satellite
• Huygens probe a space probe to Saturn's moon Titan
• Double Star Mission probe to study effects of the sun on Earth (in cooperation with China)
• Hubble Space Telescope built and operated in cooperation with NASA
• Integral the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory ever launched (2002)
• Mars Express a space probe to Mars
• Rosetta a space probe launched in 2004 that will explore comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.
• Smart 1 a lunar spaceprobe testing new propulsion technology
• SOHO a space-based observatory to study the sun (together with NASA)
• Ulysses built and operated in cooperation with NASA

Current projects to be launched in the near future

• CryoSat — a three-year radar altimetry mission, scheduled for launch in late 2005, to determine variations in the thickness of the Earth’s continental ice sheets and marine ice cover.
• Venus Express — a space probe to Venus
• BepiColombo space probe to Mercury
• Corot — a space telescope for detecting rocky exoplanets larger than Earth. A project led by CNES
• Galileo positioning system a proposed satellite positioning system
• Gaia probe space telescope to make a 3-D chart of the galaxy
• Herschel Space Observatory a space telescope that will be launched together with Planck Surveyor in 2007
• KEO The ESA is sponsoring the KEO satellite, which will carry messages addressed to future inhabitants of the planet Earth (a time capsule expected to return in the year 52006).
• LISA Pathfinder (aka Smart-2)

Future projects

• Aurora Programme space exploration problem for manned and unmanned exploration of Mars and other planets in our solar system
• Darwin interferometer to detect Earth-sized exoplanets
• EADS Phoenix a possible European manned reusable launch system (following Hermes)
• JWST planned successor to the Hubble telescope (together with NASA)
• XEUS an X-ray spectroscope mission

Past projects

• Hipparcos — a space-based astrometry mission
• Giotto mission — first deep space mission of ESA
• ISO — Infrared Space Observatory
• Cos-B — first project of ESA after foundation (in 1975)
• IUE — ultraviolet exploring space observatory

Field installations

• Headquarters of ESA, Paris, France
• European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany
• Centre Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, French Guiana
• European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands
• European Space Research Institute (ESRIN), Frascati, Italy
• European Astronauts Centre (EAC), Cologne, Germany

See also

• Orfeo Programme — the European high-resolution Earth observation programme
• Space exploration
• EUMETSAT
• NASA
• Arianespace
• Esrange

Notes

1. Template:Note Interview with Jean-Jacques Dordain by Jaxa in 2005. [1] (http://www.jaxa.jp/news_topics/interview/vol4/index_e.html)
2. Template:Note ESA website article on cooperation (especially with Russia). [2] (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Home/SEMCDI1PGQD_0.html)
3. Template:Note ESA information on its relationship to the EU. [3] (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMFEPYV1SD_index_0.html)
4. Template:Note Figures regarding the ESA budget and the three biggest contributors to it. [4] (http://eu.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=15342)
5. Template:Note Budget figures of the German DLR (in german). [5] (http://www.dlr.de/dlr/Unternehmen)
6. Template:Note PDF-file with detailed information to NASA's budget for 2005. [6] (http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/115071main_FY05_op_plan_may.pdf)).
7. Template:Note Artikel on the new Russian Klipper spacecraft with a reference to actual Soyuz costs. [7] (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6623693/)
8. Template:Note Artikel on the Japanese Space Agency and its budget constraints. [8] (http://www.space.com/news/jaxa_trouble_050428.html)
9. Template:Note Artikel on the Russian Space Agency and its budget constraints. [9] (http://www.cdi.org/friendlyversion/printversion.cfm?documentID=2513)
10. Template:Note Information on Ariane 5 provided by ESA. [10] (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Access_to_Space/SEM9UD67ESD_0.html)
11. Template:Note Article by ESA on the launch date of Soyuz from French Guiana. [11] (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Access_to_Space/SEMQ5P57ESD_0.html)
12. Template:Note ESA information on the cooperation with Russia on the Soyuz spacecraft. [12] (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Home/SEMCDI1PGQD_0.html).
13. Template:Note ESA information on the new Vega rocket. [13] (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Access_to_Space/SEMH3E67ESD_0.html)
14. Template:Note Article in the Guardian from May 22, 2005 [14] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,1489679,00.html)
15. Template:Note ESA website on the International Space Station and its share of the cots. [15] (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/ESAQHA0VMOC_iss_0.html)
16. Template:Note ESA website on the Automatic Transfer Vehicle. [16] (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ATV/ESA4ZJ0VMOC_0.html)

References

• Bonnet, Roger; Manno, Vittorio (1994). International Cooperation in Space: The Example of the European Space Agency (Frontiers of Space). Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674458354.
• Johnson, Nicholas (1993). Space technologies and space science activities of member states of the European Space Agency. ASIN B0006P4W08 .
• Peeters, Walter (2000). Space Marketing: A European Perspective (Space Technology Library). ISBN 0792367448.
• Zabusky, Stacia (2001). Launching Europe: An Ethnography of European Cooperation in Space Science. ISBN B00005OBX2.
• Harvey, Brian (2003). Europe's Space Programme: To Ariane and Beyond. ISBN 1852337222.

External links

• ESA website (http://www.esa.int)
• Encarta on ESA (http://encarta.msn.com/European_Space_Agency.html)
• DW-World 2004 Europe's Great Space Race (http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1248176,00.html)
• European - American rivalry, a new space race? (http://www.unieurope.org/showarticle.php?id=745)
• EUROPA Website: A European strategy for space (http://europa.eu.int/comm/space/themes/strategy_space_en.html)]
• European Homepage for the Hubble Space Telescope (http://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator/)
• Europe and NASA in space race to dig up dirt on Mars (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8585135%255E27703,00.html)
• ESA Aurora pogramme for space exploration (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Aurora/)
• Alcatel Space delivers EGNOS to ESA (http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM2VV1DU8E_index_0.html)
• Alcatel Space (http://www.alcatel.com/space/)
• EADS Company (http://www.eads.net)cs:ESA

da:ESA de:European Space Agency et:Euroopa Kosmoseagentuur es:Agencia Espacial Europea fr:Agence spatiale européenne it:Agenzia Spaziale Europea zh-min-nan:Europa Thài-khong Chóng-sú nl:Europese Ruimtevaartorganisatie ja:欧州宇宙機関 no:Den europeiske romfartsorganisasjonen pl:Europejska Agencja Kosmiczna pt:Agência Espacial Europeia ru:Европейское космическое агентство fi:Euroopan avaruusjärjestö sv:Europeiska rymdstyrelsen zh:欧洲航天局