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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Looking beyond the boundaries
Since time immemorial, man’s natural instinct for discovery has pushed us to explore other continents and worlds to give us a better understanding of the Earth and our place in the Universe.
Over the past five decades, Europe has made history in the scientific exploration of the Solar System and the Universe: from a close encounter with Comet Halley in 1986, to parachuting a probe onto Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005; discovering water-ice under the surface of Mars, and probing our Sun as never before and imaging the farthest galaxies.
The European Space Agency, ESA, is now looking ahead to the next twenty years with the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. This will be a starting point for crucial studies in space science to discover if other worlds exist and how we evolved from the Big Bang to now. European scientists are working today to develop innovative missions to face the scientific, intellectual and technological challenges of tomorrow.
At the core of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme lie several fundamental themes:
The conditions for planetary formation and the emergence of life
How the Solar System works
The fundamental laws of physics governing the Universe
The origins of the universe and what it is made of.