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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The Herschel telescope is a classic Cassegrain design with a 3.5-m primary mirror — the largest ever launched into space —
and a smaller secondary mirror. This powerful telescope will allow astronomers to look deep into space by detecting light
emitted in the far-infrared and sub-millimetre regions of the spectrum. Earth's atmosphere prevents most of this light from
reaching ground-based telescopes. From orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2, 1.5 million
kilometres from Earth, Herschel will provide unprecedented views of the Universe by bridging the gap between previous
infrared observatories and ground-based radio telescopes. This picture of the satellite was taken during testing at ESA’s
European Space Research and Technology Centre, ESTEC, the Netherlands.