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 topicOne of the more unusual views of the Venus transit, a commercial airliner is captured crossing the Sun's disc during the transit. A still image taken from a video of the event being filmed on 8 June 2004 by astronomers from the ESA Science Directorate at ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
These were D. Koschny, A. Piot, R. Francis, O. Witasse, K. Wirth, G. de Marchi, M. Baroni and B.H. Foing (Chief Scientist).