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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Proba-V fixed to the Vespa (Vega secondary payload adapter), above Vietnam’s VNREDSat-1 Earth observation satellite and the ESTCube-1 Estonian student nanosatellite. On 17 April 2013 the stack of satellites was covered with the Vega protective fairing. Proba-V was the first of the three satellites to be deployed from Vega’s upper stage. Less than a cubic metre in volume, Proba-V is a miniaturised ESA satellite tasked with a full-scale mission: to map land cover and vegetation growth across the entire planet every two days. A new, advanced version of the ‘Vegetation’ camera is flying on Proba-V. This is the latest in a series previously in service on France’s full-sized Spot-4 and Spot-5 satellites, which have been observing Earth since 1998. Proba-V’s Vega lifted off at 02:06 GMT on 7 May 2013 (23:06 local time 6 May; 04:06 CEST 7 May).