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!
One of the first photos taken by Envisat, ESA's Earth observation satellite in March 2002.
The collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf observed on 18 March 2002.
The Antarctic Penininsula has experienced exceptional atmospheric warming over the last decades, triggering the retreat and break-up of the ice shelves. The launch of Envisat occurred just in time to capture the disintegration of the Larsen B ice shelf. This 400 km wide ASAR image of 18 March 2002 (orbit 246) shows that the collapsed ice shelf has fractured into thousands of small icebergs, drifting eastwards into the Weddell Sea. This kind of breakup is quite different from the periodic calving processes taking place 1000 km further south which have led to the presence of the large drifting icebergs seen in the image.