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!
The Spanish city of Barcelona is pictured in this image captured on 13 September 2010 by Japan’s ALOS satellite. Near the top right corner, the circular Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes was meant to be the city centre in the original urban plan. Dominating the left side of the image are the Garraf Massif mountains, their cliffs reaching the Mediterranean coast. Rock quarries and rubbish dumps are degrading the land here, and some of these degraded areas can be seen in the lower left corner as large yellow patches. Along the coast, we can see the Barcelona’s port – one of Europe’s top ten largest container ports. Barcelona-El Prat airport is about 10 km southwest of the city centre, across the Llobregat River. On either side of the airport we can see the darker areas of the Llobregat delta.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.