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 white dots in the animation are all of the vessels detected by the SAR instrument aboard ERS-2. Green dots represent vessels equipped with a transponder and identified by the Automatic Identification System (AIS). (Green circles represent the vessel location, while green lines represent the track of the vessel). Red dots are unidentified, potentially suspect vessels.