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!
The DIRECTV satellite is a Boeing Space Systems 601 HP platform, and it was installed under the 9.6-meter-long payload fairing on top of the Ariane 4 launcher on 27 November 2001 for the ride into space. The satellite will be used by California-based DIRECTV to provide digital television service with more than 300 channels of additional capacity. This capacity will be employed to deliver additional local channels and strengthen the redundancy of its in-orbit fleet. Photo: ESA/CNES/Arianespace