by Ruth Titz-Weider (DLR), November 2024
The European Space Agency (ESA) is an international organisation for exploring space and advancing Europe’s scientific and economical interests there. ESA was founded in 1975 and has 22 member countires. By combining finances and know-how of the different countries, it can realize programmes and projects that would be beyond the capabilities of the single countries.
Flags of ESA members (2019). Credit: Credit: ESA
Germany’s interests are represented by the German Space Agency as part of the DLR. ESA’s main seat is in Paris, but there are numerous complexes and centers around Europe. For example, Germany hosts the ESA mission control centre ESOC in Darmstadt and the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne.
ESA’s fields of activity are:
- Earth observation: e.g. Copernicus, the European Earth observation program
- Navigation: e.g. Galileo, an independent satellite navigation system for Europe
- Satellite communication/communication systems: e.g. satellite TV, weather forecast, internet access for remote areas
- Conducting Missions for exploring planets, moons and other celestial objects: e.G. Rosetta, landing a probe on a comet in 2014, and Mars Express, orbiting Mars since 2003.
Mars Express. Credit: ESA – D. Ducros
Exoplanet exploration
Several of ESA’s missions are explicitly aimed at exploring extrasolar planets. At the moment and in the near future, those are CHEOPS (start: 2019 – end: 2026), PLATO (start: 2026) and ARIEL (start: 2028). Furthermore, the Gaia mission through its highly precise data on the positions and movements of stars, supplies ample indications for exoplanet existence.
Current and near future missions on exoplanet research directly conducted by ESA (Cheops, Plato, Ariel) oor with significant ESA collaboration (Webb). Credit: ESA
The search for exoplanets specifically with space-based telescopes started with the CoRoT mission by the French space agency CNES in 2007. For that, CNES collaborated with ESA, In addition, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands were also involved.
The future missions PLATO and ARIEL are scheduled to be carried to space by new launch vehicle Ariane 6, which had its first successfull flight in July 2024. With the European spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana, ESA posesses independent access to space for scientific and commercial missions.
Learn more about ESA and its numerous projects on their web page.
