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!
ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, Soyuz commander Dmitri Kondratyev and NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman with ISS Expedition 26 crew Alexander Kaleri, Scott Kelly and Oleg Skripochka during the short live event after opening the hatches between the International Space Station and Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft. The three new crewmembers arrived at Space Station on 17 December at 21:12 CET and the ingress happened at 00:05 CET.
They were launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 15 December at 20:09 CET. Paolo’s MagISStra mission will be Europe’s third long-duration mission on the ISS. Between December 2010 and June 2011 he will be part of the ISS crew as a flight engineer.