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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ATV cargo carrier front cone which accommodates the Russian
docking system with its 80 cm-diameter hatch. The front end is also equipped with avionics and propulsion hardware, critical to the automatic rendezvous with the ISS. There are two telegoniometers which continuously calculate distance and direction from ATV to ISS, 2 videometers [image processing system able to compute distance and orientation of the ISS], two star trackers [able to recognize constellations in the sky], two visual video targets (used by the ISS crew for visual monitoring of the ATV final approach) and 8 mini-jets for attitude control. (Kourou, 16 August 2007)