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!
Fracture engineer Andreas Tesch of ESA’s Materials and Electrical Components Laboratories, based at the ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is seen preparing ESA’s Aramis measuring system, used to identify the slightest submillimetre deformation of materials and components put to the test. In practice shifting down to a few micrometres - one thousandth of a millimetre - can be detected in real time.