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!
This Landsat image from 6 September 2010 shows the intertidal Wadden Sea and two shallow, artificial lakes in the Netherlands. Visible in the image is the Afsluitdijk – a causeway that creates a division between the Wadden Sea to the north and the former Zuiderzee bay to the south.
After the dike was built, the Dutch were able to reclaim land from the sea – like the lighter coloured areas in the lower-central part of the image. Zooming in, we can see the patchwork of agricultural land plots.
ESA supports the Landsat series as a Third Party Mission, meaning it uses its ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute Landsat data to users.