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
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On 23 June at 01:52 GMT (03:52 CEST 23 June; 22:52 local time 22 June) Sentinel-2A will be launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on top of a Vega. This satellite will be the second Sentinel for the Copernicus Programme.
Copernicus is the most ambitious Earth observation programme to date. It will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security. This initiative is headed by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).
ESA coordinates the delivery of data and is developing a new family of satellites, the Sentinels, specifically for the operational needs of Copernicus. The EC, acting on behalf of the European Union, is responsible for the overall initiative, setting requirements and managing the services. These services fall into six main categories: land management, the marine environment, atmosphere, emergency response, security and climate change.
This video shows a good example of these services with GeoVille, based in Austria, which is playing a key role in Copernicus services for land applications, related to both land cover production as well as downstream services in the spatial planning domain.