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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ISS Expedition 26/27 crewmembers (Cady Coleman, Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli) look out from the windows of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Tupolev-134 on a holding pattern near the Baikonur airport waiting for the go to commence the final approach on 3 December 2010. Baikonur, Kazakhstan, is the site of the Russian cosmodrome from where most of the Russian rockets are launched into Space. The launch on a Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is in less than 2 weeks.
Paolo Nespoli, ESA's Italian astronaut, will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on 15 December for a long-duration mission called MagISStra and serve as flight engineer for Expeditions 26 and 27. This will be the third six-month mission by a European astronaut on the Station.