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.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
European technology is making it easier to catch signals from speeding satellites. SARAS – a Spanish acronym for ‘Fast Acquisition of Satellites and Launchers’ – enables ground stations to acquire signals from newly launched satellites faster and more accurately than ever before.
The system comprises a circular array of eight small radio-frequency sensors that are mounted around the rim of an existing dish antenna. The system was fitted to the 15 m-diameter tracking station at ESA’s ESAC Establishment, seen here during upgrade work, in 2013.
Since then, it has been extensively tested and validated, helping acquire signals from current and newly launched missions including CryoSat-2, XMM, GOCE and Swarm. It also helps the station to acquire signals from multi-satellite missions, such as the three-craft SWARM mission.