About ESA
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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Space in Member States
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
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Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Roger Bonnet & Colin Pillinger
Dr Roger Bonnet (left), ESAs Director of Scientific Programmes, with Prof Colin Pillinger of The Open University, UK, at a Rosetta press event at The Royal Society in London on 1 July 1999. The event coincided with the London meeting of the Rosetta Science Working Team and the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. Prof Pillinger is the Principal Investigator for instruments on the Rosetta main spacecraft and the comet nucleus lander. The International Rosetta Mission was approved in November 1993 by ESA's Science Programme Committee as the Planetary Cornerstone Mission in ESA's long-term programme in space science, Horizon 2000. The mission's main goal is a rendezvous beginning in November 2011 with Comet 46P/Wirtanen, but it will also study two asteroids during close flybys (Otawara 10 July 2006 and Siwa 23 July 2008) en route to the comet. Rosetta will study the nucleus of Comet Wirtanen and its environment in great detail for almost 2 years, the near-nucleus phase starting at a heliocentric distance of about 3.25 AU, from onset of activity through to perihelion, close to 1 AU. Launch is planned for January 2003 on an Ariane-5 from Kourou, French Guiana. [Image Date: 01-07-99] [99.07.003-039]
