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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The second Ariane-5, AR-502/V101, was launched 30 October 1997 carrying the two instrumented Maqsat platforms and TeamSat. Unique images were returned to Earth by TeamSat as it separated with Ariane's Maqsat-H upper payload. Shown is the Speltra/upper state composite falling behind, 29 s after separation 600 km over Africa. TeamSat's Visual Telemetry System (VTS) of three cameras and a master compression unit was designed to acquire image sequences of critical operations. [Image Date: 30-10-97] [97.10.016-003]