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A European Space Professional (ESA), established inside 1975, is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to exploration of space with currently Seventeen member states. Its headquarters are in Paris, France. ESthe has the staff (excluding sub-contractors & national space agents) of astir 1,900 using a budget of Three billion euros in 2005.

ESA's spaceport is the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, a places chosen because these are some a equator from which commercially important orbits come more comfortable to access. When you took a era of Ariane 4 ESA gained a position of market leader inside commercial space launches & inside recent years ESA hwhen established itself as the major competition of NASA in space exploration.

ESA science missions come depending at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands, Earth Observation missions at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy, ESA Mission Control (ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany, and a European Astronauts Centre (EAC), that trains astronauts for new missions is placed inside Cologne, Germany.

History and goals
[http://www.esa.int/esapub/sp/sp1235/sp1235v1web.pdf European Space Agency History 1958-1987 Volume I 458 pages PDF] [http://www.esa.int/esapub/sp/sp1235/sp1235v2web.pdf European Space Agency History 1958-1987 Volume II 691 pages PDF]

ESA's mission
Since a Cold War ended with a fall of the Soviet Union's "iron curtain," space agencies around the world had to refocus & revise their visions & goals. Inside an locate using JAXA, the Japanese Space Professional, Jean-Jacques Dordain ESA's Director General (since 2003) outlined briefly the European Space professional's mission:

In todays world space activities come pursued for the profit of citizens, & citizens come request for the better quality of life olympian games. It need greater security & economic wealth, however it besides obviously pursue their dreams, to increase their noesis, & it desire immature humans to exist as attracted to the pursuit of science & technology.

''We believe that space may launder completely of this: it potty make the higher quality of life, better security, extra economic wealth, & likewise fulfil my citizens' dreams & thirst for knowledge, & attract a immature generation. This is the understanding space exploration is an integral a share of overall space activities. It has universally been & then, and it is possibly supplementary significant later.''

History of ESA's foundation
Pierre Auger, one of the ideological founders of the European Space Agency

When a Second World War many European scientists experienced left Europe sequentially to function either in a United states of america or even the Soviet Union. Although a booming convalescent run of the 50s processed it imagina cappella for European countries to invest into search & specifically into space related activities, European man of science realised exclusively national projects would non become able to compete using them major world power. Around 1958, only months fallowing a Sputnik shock, Eduardo Amaldi and Pierre Auger, two large members of the European scientific community at that period, met to discuss the foundation of a most common European space professional.

the European nations decided to evolve deuce different agents, of these caring to develop a launch patterns ELDO (European Launch Development Organisation) and a precursor of the European Space Professional, ESRO (European Space Research Organisatiin) that was established on March 20, 1964 per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962. From either 1968 to 1972 ESRO could celebrate its foremost successes. Seven the food and drug administration satellites were brought into orbit, totally by The states launch systems.

A ESRO's successor organisation ESTEC (European Space Research & Technology Centre, depending around Noordwijk, the Netherlands) is still the section of ESA, though ESA itself occurs as tremendously large organisation in todays world. ESA around its todays form was founded within 1974, when ESRO was merged by owning ELDO. ESA was constituted of Xi initiation members including non merely so EU-members (right declared: EC-members) however likewise Switzerland and Norway. ESA launched its number 1 major scientific mission around 1975, Cos-B a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emissions in the universe.

From its beginnings to a leading institution
GEOS-ESA, a satellite studying the Earth's magnetosphere, launched 1977, an example of early ESA space research activity

Beginning in the 1970s, when a space race between a United states & the Soviet Union experienced tuned down & space budgets were cut dramatically within two superpowers, ESA established itself as a forerunner in space exploration. ESA joined NASA & a UK in the IUE, the world's first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 & operated super with success for Eighteen years. The total of successful Globe-orbit projects followed, & within 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to survey a Comets Halley & Grigg-Skejllerup. Hipparcos, a star-mapping mission, was launched around 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses and the Hubble Space Telescope were all jointly carried out sustaining NASA. Recent scientific missions around cooperation using NASA include a Cassini-Huygens space probe, to which ESA contributed by building the Titan landing module Huygens.

When a successor of the ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for remote-controlled scientific & commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, brought mostly-commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward. a next ii developments of the Ariane rocket were medium stages in the development of a additional advanced launch rules, the Ariane 4, which operated between 1988 and 2003 and would have established ESA when the world leader inside commercial space launches. Nevertheless its successor, a presently utilized Ariane 5 rocket, had starting problems. A number 1 launch of the lightly variation of Ariane 5 in 1996 failed as did a foremost flight of the Ariane 5 ECA, a heavily modification of Ariane, around 2002. Despite these failures a Ariane 5 rocket has established itself withwithin a heavy competitory commercial space launch market since its number 1 successful flight in 1997 and prospectively will email Xxv successful launches by 2006.

A beginning of the recently millennium saw ESA be NASA's independent challenger around scientific space research. When ESA experienced relied inside cooperatiin by having NASA in former decades, especially a Nineties, changed circumstances (like hard legal restrictions on trading tools sharing per Our contries military) led to decisions to rely extra in itself & in cooperation by having Russia. The recent click issue so declared:

''Russia is ESA's number 1 partner within its efforts to assure long-long-run access to space. There is a framework agreement between ESA & the food & drug administratiaround of the Russian Federation on cooperation & partnership in the exploration & utilize of outer space for peaceful purposes, and cooperation is already under way in each different areas of launcher activity that provides rewards to both partners.''

Virtually all notable for its freshly self-confidence come ESA's have recent successful missions Smart-1, a probe researching cutting-edge recently space propulsion technology, a Mars Express mission when well as a development of the Ariane 5 rocket.

ESA's further goals and aims
Venus Express is due for launch the end of 2005

ESA has challenging space plans that can be divided into terzetto big categories. 1st, ESA might maintain its scientific & scientific research (e.g. tests & developments of freshly propulsion systems), try to buy ways to reduce costs for their rocket fleet when enhancing their capacities, honour its commitments on a ISS and engage around farther space exploration like the Venus Express mission that will launch within late 2005. A 2nd category has numbers of parallels to NASA's plans & is of astronomy-space missions like a Planck probe studying a cmb (2007), a Herschel space observatory (2006), Corot that will be the milestone in the lookup for exoplanets and is due to launch in June 2006 or the Darwin interferometer. Darwin will mark the survive step in the ultimate goal of discovering extra exoplanets and the number 1 Earth-size planet outside our solar system.

Piece a projects described above come or so similar in their structure & aim when NASA's & more space agents' plans, a ESA's Mars project is different. A Aurora Programme lays out a instance table for first missions to Mars, however around counterpoint to NASA's plans no emphasis in manned or even remote-controlled lunar missions, it rather includes many flagship missions designed to evolve & end line text technology needful for the manned European Mars mission currently plotted for 2030. Among these flagship missions is ExoMars, the mission involving a Mars rover. Until 2005 ExoMars was planned to be the joint mission between NASA & ESA, all the same obstacles like Our contries technology law that prohibits sharing of classified space technology data led to ESA deciding to jump alone. A mission is presently planned to launch around 2011. An potentially further challenging Mars project is the Mars Sample Return Mission, that is planned as a follow-higher mission to ExoMars. It might require a foremost period a probe might go to of samples from either an additional planet, making it necessary to construct an ascent module that is capable of starting into Mars orbit & dock using the original probe.

Member countries, budget and organisations
Member countries and strategic partners
ESA is a national space organisations & more take a breath one xvii countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Numbers of countries are probably to jowithin ESA in a coming years, especially the countries world health organization were section of the EU-enlargement in 2004. Additionally ESA entered into significant partnership agreements by using non-member countries:

Hungary and the Czech Republic signed a 5-month Project for European Cooperating State (PECS), that is aimed at preparing the states for to the full membership. Their business firm potty bid for & receive contracts to functiin on programmes. A countries might participate around nearly tons programmes, except for the Basic Technology Locate Programme. A membership fees come tremendously moo than using to the full membership. Poland and Romania are likely to exist as a next to sign Pectoralis documents. Since January 1, 1979, Canada has a favorite status of cooperating state by owning the ESA. By virtue of this accord, Canada participate within ESA's deliberative bodies & guide-making & too inside ESA's programmes & activities. Ameripotty business firm can bid for & receive contracts to functiin on programmes. the accord has the provision ensuring a fair industrial link to to Canada. Look at as well: Canadian Space Agency ESthe has entered into a major joint venture by owning Russia (see following). Since China began to invest additional money into space activities, a Chinese Space Agency has sought international partnerships. ESA is, beside a Russian Space Agency, one of its most important partners. Recently them space agents cooperated in the development of the Double Star Mission.

Relationship with the EU

Presently, ESA is non inside a structures of the European Union (EU) — note that its membership contains non-EU countries such as Switzerl& and Norway. There are ties between a organisations, using various agreements in situ & existence worked in, to establish a legal status of ESA by using regard to the EU . There are most common goals between ESA & a EU, & ESA has an EU liaison professional inside Brussels. A EU particularly wishes to assure political control of Europe's space access, an issue of vital importance for Europe's political & economic role in the globe.

Budget

Dollars and cents of ESA wwhen announced as €2.977 billion for 2005. This is the ten by the cent increase in the budget compared to by owning 2004. A increase is largely invested around ESA's launch vehicles that come presently a virtually all expensive a share of ESA's activities (Twenty-both by the cent of the budget goes into launch vehicles; man space flight is 2nd within budget expenditures). Within 2005, the troika big contributors, together funding 2 thirds of ESA's budget, come France (29.3%), Germany (22.7%) & Italy (14.2%).

Compared to by having NASA's budget of sixteen billion dollars (€13 billion), ESA's budget of €3 billion superficially looks considerable less. Still sequentially to produce the avowedly comparison additional factors develop to become considered:

Unlike a U.s.a., Europe maintains each ESA & national space agents (watch in the image below). These national space agents clean keep close at h& considerable budgets provided for research project and joint projects using ESA. E.g., a German DLR has a budget for 2005 of €760 million and a French CNES had a budget of €1.Three billion inside 2004. Ingesting a budgets of completely national space agents together & adding the two to ESA's numbers would at least double a total spent by Europe for space related activities.

Considerable costs come found by NASA around maintaining a senescent Space Shuttle. of these Space Shuttle launch costs to a higher degree $600 million & when you took a endure decades as much as one third of NASA's budget got to become invested in the Shuttle to keep it flying (for 2005, $5 billion come allocated for the Space Shuttle constituting 30% of the budget # When NASA's funding of several scientific research has been cut in the recent years & months sequentially to yours free! money for the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle and for the retirement of the Space Shuttle, ESA's investment in search & development projects has increased steadily in the previous years. By owning the connexion of freshly ESA member states dollars and cents is in all probability to increase farther by a big rate in the next years.

Fallowing a space race activities of the 1960s & early '70s, NASthe has maintained a immense administration & bureaucracy that however burdens each todays projects & NASA budgets. ESA was never included inside big-shell political activity like a space race, it therefore has universally got the microscopic & effective structure & professional level corresponding to the personal company.

Compared to to more space agents, ESA & NASA come in another budget league, by having a Japanese JAXA having annual funds of €1.6 billion at its disposal some a equivalent total a 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 come inside central Paris. The Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana'' or ASI) was founded inside 1988 to promote, coordinate and conduct space activities inside Italy. Operating under a Ministry of a Universities & of Scientific & Technological Search, a professional cooperates sustaining many breathe active around space technology & sustaining the president of the Council of Ministers. Internationally, a ASI will bring Italy's delegation to the Council of the European Space Professional & 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 & space flight of the Federal Republic of Germany & of more member states in the Helmholtz Association. Its extensive locate & development projects come involved within subject & international cooperative programmes. Additionally to its scientific research, a centre is the assigned space professional of Germany bestowing headquarters of German space flight activities & its associates. The British National Space Centre (BNSC) is a partnership of the UK government departments which are then active around space. Through a BNSC a partners provide delegates to represent the UK on the various ESA administration. Apiece partner funds its have programme.

Launch vehicle fleet
ESthe has processed awesome progress towards its goal of getting a complete fleet of launch vehicles around service, competing all told sectors of the launch market. ESA's fleet may shortly consist of trine major rocket designs, Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega. Rocket launches come carried out by Arianespace, an ESA subsidiary (a minority part is held by EADS as well), at ESA's spaceport in French Guiana. Because numbers of communication satellites keep around equatorial orbits, launches from either either French Guiana come entity to require big payloads into space than from more northern spaceports.

Ariane 5
A Ariane 5 rocket is the primary launcher of the ESA. Its maximal approximated payload is 6-10 metric all to GTO and up to Twenty-one metric all about to LEO. A launch craft has been within service since 1997 and replaced the Ariane 4. A Ariane rocket lives within many specifications, a heavily one of these is the Ariane 5 ECA that has been successfully launched witharound February 2005 number 1, when it failed when you took its first line 1 text flight in 2002.

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

Soyuz launch vehicle
Soyuz is a Russian medium payload (ca. Triad metric all to GTO) launcher to be brought into ESA service within 2007 . Under a agreement, a Russian professional might manufacture Soyuz rocket area for ESA, which may so exist as shipped to French Guiana for assembly. ESthe rewards because it profits a medium payloads launcher, complementing its fleet when saving in development costs. Additionally, a Soyuz rocket — which has been a Russian's space launch workhorse for a few Xl years — is proved technology by using a good safety record, which ESA will exist as happy to utilize for launching human being into space. Russia as well advantages in this it might become access to the Kourou launch places. Launching from either Kourou like than Baikonur will allow a Russians to well-nigh double the Soyuz payload (Ternion.Nought t vs. I.Septenary metric ton), because of Kourou's nigher proximity to the equator. Each sides advantage from either a hanker term strategical cooperation that additionally is utilized to jointly get new technology. These are maybe worth noting that France (ESA's big contributor) has historically experienced proficient relations by having Russia, which contributed to reaching a agreement. (Watch [http://stream1.euronews.net:8080/ramgen/mag/space-soyouz-en.rm?usehostname EuroNews report about the joint venture] (Real videos stream).)

Vega
Vega is ESA's small payload (ca. One.Fivesome metric all about to 700 kilometer orbit) launcher; its number one launch is planned for 2007 . A leading ESA's member state for the Vega Programme is Italy contributing 65 % of the costs. Vega itself has been designed to become a system launcher by owning triplet firm propulsion stages & even more, an extra liquid propulsion upper module to place a loading into the accurate orbit arranged. For the microscopic-cargo rocket these are remarkbreathe that Vega is able to place multiple payloads into orbit.

''View as well: [http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/VEGAbrochure.pdf ESA's Vega Brochure]''

Human space flight

History
Jean-Loup Chrétien became the first Western European to fly into space At the period ESA was formed its independent goals did non encompass human being space flight, like it considered itself to become primarily a research project organisation for remote-controlled space exploration inside direct contrast to its Our contries & Soviet counterparts. These are so nin surprising that the 1st non-Soviet European inside space was non an ESA cosmonaut on a European space craft: It was Czechoslovakian Vladimir Remek who in 1978 became the number one European within space - in the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, followed by the East German Sigmund Jähn in the same season. This Soviet cooperation programme named Intercosmos primarily involved a participation of Eastern block countries, however around 1982 Jean-Loup Chrétien became the 1st american European spaceman in the flight to the Soviet Salyut 7 space station.

Because Chrétien did non officially fly into space as an ESA cosmonaut, however like as a member of the French CNES astronaut corps, the German Ulf Merbold is considered the number 1 ESA cosmonaut ever to fly into space. He participated in the STS-9 space shuttle mission that included a number 1 utilise of the European built Spacelab in 1983. STS-9 marked a beginning of an winter wren ESA/NASA joint partnership that involved 12 of space flights of ESA cosmonaut in the below years. Beside invite seats on the Space Shuttle ESA continued its human space flight cooperation by owning a Soviet Union and later Russia, including numerous visits to Mir.

inside a period of a latter half of the Eighties European human existence space flights changed from either being the exception to like constituting a routine & so in 1990 the European Astronaut Centre that is situated around Cologne, Germany was established. It selects & trains prospective spaceman & is responsible the coordination by owning international partners especially sustaining regards to the International Space Station. When of 2005 a ESA corps officially counts Xviii members, including subject from either altogether large European countries except the United Kingdom.

ESA Astronaut Corps

Pedro Duque (E), Gerhard Thiele (D), Jean-François Clervoy (F), Umberto Guidoni (I), Léopold 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 (D), Philippe Perrin (F), André Kuipers (NL).

ESA cosmonaut to develop visited a ISS come: U. GuidonI personally (I), ESA, Ninth 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. VittorWe (I), ASI Marco Polo, Soyuz/ISS, 25/04/02 - 05/05/02 Ph. Perrin (F), NASA/ESA, ISS assembly flight UF-Two, 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. VittorWe (I), ASI Eneide, Soyuz/ISS, 15/04/05 - 25/04/05

ESA's own manned launch vehicles
In the Eighties France pressed for an independent European manned launch vehicle. About 1985 it was decided to pursue the reclaimable ballistic capsule model & starting within November 1987 the task to produce the mini-shuttle per title of Hermes was introduced. A craft itself was modelled like to the foremost proposals of the Space Shuttle & should constitute the little reclaimable starship that would carry Three to Five spaceman and Three to Four metric all about of payload for scientific experiments. Using a sum maximal weight of Xxi metric all it would use at times began from either the parallely developed Ariane 5 rocket. It was planned alone for utilise within LEO space flights. A planning & pre-development phase concluded inside 1991, however a production phase was never fully implemented because at that period a political landscape experienced changed significantly. By having a fall of the Soviet Union ESthe looked forward to a cooperation by using Russia to built a next-generation man ballistic capsule. So a Hermes programme was cancelled in 1995 after about Three billion dollars experienced been invested.

In the 21st century ESA began freshly programmes sequentially to produce an possess manned ballistic capsule, virtually all notably among its various projects & proposal is Hopper where a paradigm built by EADS called Phoenix has already been tested. Patch projects like Hopper are neither concrete nor to be realised inside the next decade, a further interesting possibility has emerged recently. Fallowing talks by using a Russian Space Agency in 2004 and June 2005 a cooperation between ESA & a Russian Space Agency was announced to jointly work on the Russian intentional Kliper shuttle, a reclaimable space vehicle that would become available for spaceflight beyond mere LEO (e.g. a moon or Mars). Kliper constitutes the Russian counterpart to the American Crew Exploration Vehicle proposal and is presently around the further advanced stage of development. These are speculated that Europe may finance a bulk of the development costs of an judged Three billion dollars (Europe's contribution can total to Unity.8 billion dollars above a next years) & that Kliper will exist as jointly built and late be entity to require off two from either French Guiana and Baikonur. By owning ESA's participation potential to exist as approved around December 2005, Kliper may see its number one launch when early when 2011. Using regard to a rocket that is utilized for its launch, the Ariane 5 as a heavy lifter, looks to exist as other than capable of launching a 13ton Kliper into LEO, however when by using a Western CEV questions remain how it is launched to destinations beyond LEO. Now a sole vientity rocket that would become able to launch either a CEV or Kliper into a lunar flight or even to Mars is the Russian built Energia rocket that was successfully launched both days in the early Nineties, however has been suspended in the wake up of the fall of the Soviet Union. The modular approach putting many modules (Kliper, the propulsion module, the mission module, the lunar lander module...) into moo Globe orbit & dock the babies is so plotted for flights to the Moon and further.

ESA projects

International Space Station

Using regard to the ISS ESA is not representing totally its member states: Five of the Xvi countries keep around opted out because of either concerns on the expenses of the task or even want of interest. ESA is participate in the construction & operation of the ISS with contributions such as a Columbus orbital facility, a research laboratory module that is brought into orbit when NASA's Space Shuttle goes back into service or a Cupola observatory module that was completed in July 2005 by Alenia Spazio for ESA. A todays estimates for a ISS come approaching 100 billion USD around sum (development, construction & Decade years of maintaining the station) of which ESA has committed itself to pay 8 billion euros . Just about 90 by the cent of the costs of ESA's ISS part is contributed by Germany (41 by the cent), France (28 by the cent) & Italy (20 by the cent). German ESA cosmonaut Thomas Reiter will be the foremost long-long-run ISS crewman within late 2005.

When of 2005, a ballistic capsule that establish the supply link to the ISS are the Progress and Soyuz spacecrafts when well as a Space Shuttle. the European Space Professional has began to construct a space bottom for the ISS, the ATV, an Automated Transfer vehicle using a load capacity of Eighter metric all about that is serving the ISS beginning 2006 . Using a Space Shuttle reaching its retirement age in 2010 and until NASA will have a replacement for it (a CEV is not potential to produce its foremost operational manned flight prior to 2012), the ATV together with Progress, Soyuz & a Japanese transporter HTV (that is yet to become developed) is a exclusively hyperlink between Globe & a ISS.

Current projects already launched

Artemis Europe's most advanced telecommunication satellite Huygens probe a space probe to Saturn's moon Titan Cluster-2 a group of iv probes researching a magnetosphere. Double Star Mission probe to study results of the sun olympian games (inside cooperation using China) Envisat is the world's big & virtually all complex environmental satellite. ERS-2 is an earth-researching satellite launched around 1995. These are a successor to ERS-1. Hubble Space Telescope built and operated around cooperation by owning 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 choose comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. Smart 1 a lunar spaceprobe testing fresh propulsion technology SOHO a space-based observatory to learn a sun (together using NASA) Ulysses built and operated inside cooperation by using NASA XMM-Newton an X-ray observatory satellite.

Current projects to be launched in the near future
ADM-Aeolus — Due for launch in 2007 will measure global wind profiles BepiColombo space probe to Mercury Chandrayaan-1 Indian space probe to the Moon that will carry ESA-processed instruments (to become launched 2007) Corot — a space telescope for detecting jolting exoplanets big than Globe. The design led by CNES CryoSat — a three-year radiolocation altimetry mission to determine variations in the thickness of the Earth’s continental ice sheets & marine ice handle. Within October 2005 a launcher failed & CyroSat was misused. ESA is evaluating a dollars & cents of rebuilding a misused satellite, and, whenever funds come availbreathe, it can be able to launch it inside astir Trey years instance. Galileo positioning system a proposed satellite positioning system Gaia probe space telescope to produce the Three-D chart of the galaxy Herschel Space Observatory a space telescope that is launched together by owning Planck Surveyor in 2007 KEO The ESA is sponsoring the KEO satellite, which will carry messages addressed to first habitant of the planet Earth (a time capsule expected to return in the season 52006). LISA Pathfinder (aka Smart-2) Venus Express — a space probe to Venus which is to be launched within Oct/Nov 2005.

Future projects
EADS Phoenix

Aurora Programme space exploration programme for manned and remote-controlled exploration of Mars and other planets within my solar system Darwin interferometer to detect Earth-sized exoplanets EADS Phoenix a possible European manned recyclable launch rules (as a consequence Hermes) JWST planned successor to the Hubble Space 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, which went to Comet Halley ISO — Infrared Space Observatory Cos-B — first project of ESA when foundation (around 1975) IUE — ultraviolet astronomical 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 Astronaut Centre (EAC), Cologne, Germany

European Space Agency (ESA)
Resource for European launchers, space science, telecommunications, Earth observation, and manned spaceflight. Updated information on launches, spacecraft in orbit, and events.

Aurora Exploration Programme
ESA's Aurora Programme formulates and implements Europe's long-term plans for the robotic and human exploration of solar system bodies that could contain traces of life.

Human Spaceflight
ESA's Human Spaceflight site features the latest news in astronauts, the International Space Station (ISS), research in space, and education.

Observing the Earth
Features the latest news on missions and satellites of the European Space Agency, with images and animations from previous journeys.

Launchers
Find information about the Ariane launch vehicle, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, and launcher technology.

Navigation
Features the latest news on space-based navigation systems and Galileo and EGNOS.

Space Science
Features news and resources to inspire the general public and inform the media on the latest discoveries in space exploration, the search for life on other planets, and the origins of the universe.

Technical and Quality Management
ESTEC, the European Space Research and Technology Centre, is the design hub for most ESA spacecraft and technology development, and is situated in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Spacecraft Operations
ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre, is responsible for controlling ESA satellites in orbit and is situated in Darmstadt, Germany.

Telecommunications
Features regularly updated news on European telecommunication satellites and the latest developments regarding Artemis and ARTES.