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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XMM project and ESTEC Test Centre staff with XMM shortly before it was sealed in its transport container on 1 September 1999 for the journey to the Kourou launch site. XMM had earlier been hoisted from the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF, behind) onto the container base. ESA's X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) high-throughput X-ray spectroscopy mission was launched successfully by Ariane 504 on 10 December 1999. By virtue of its large collecting area and highly eccentric orbit, the 3.9-tonne XMM will make long observations of soft X-ray (100 eV to 12 keV) sources with unprecedented sensitivity. Most of the 50-200 sources in every image will be revealed for the first time. Whereas the German/US/UK Rosat mission, launched in 1990, pushed the number of known X-ray sources to 120 000, XMM will see millions. [Image Date: 01-09-99] [99.08.011-052]