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.
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Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This gorgeous composite image shows this month’s full Moon, also known as a ‘Cold Moon’, seeming to hover above a set of satellite tracking dishes on the campus of the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA), in the southern part of the Canary Islands’ Gran Canaria, at Montaña Blanca.
One of the antennas – the 15 m-diameter dish seen at left – is ESA’s Maspalomas tracking station, which currently communicates with ESA’s Cluster, LISA Pathfinder and XMM-Newton missions.
It was created on 14 December by amateur photographer Claus Vogl, from Fürth, Germany, who writes: “I spent my vacation last week at Gran Canaria. I spotted the ESA site many years ago and always was fascinated by this big antennas facing into space. The entire shooting window was just two minutes. I shot from on top of a little mountain 1.6 kilometres West of the big antenna, just outside a very little village called Montaña la Arena on a narrow dirt road. The camera equipment was a Canon EOS 5D Mark 3 with an EF 70-200/2.8 IS L lens (exposure time 1.0 sec/aperture F5.6/ISO 400).”
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