About ESA
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.
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Space in Member States
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Spain
Estonia
Finland
France
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
The Netherlands
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Portugal
Czechia
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Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Orion fairing
Orion fairing installed before the first test-flight. The integration of one of the fairing protective panels over the Orion vehicle on its Delta IV Heavy launcher in preparation for the Exploration Flight Test 1 mission of December 2014.The panels protect the crew module from sound and vibration during launch are installed just below the Launch Abort System tower.
The Crew Module sits atop the service module and can hold four astronauts and cargo. This the only part of Orion designed to reenter Earth’s atmosphere: the heatshield protects it against the intense heat of reentry at 32 000 km/h.
A number of elements are required only during launch and are discarded shortly before entering space. The Spacecraft Adapter attaches Orion to its launch vehicle. The Spacecraft Adapter Jettisonable Fairings offer aerodynamic protection during launch. When the vehicle is high enough above Earth, the fairings are jettisoned to fall into the ocean.
As Orion ferries people to space and back, safety is paramount. If anything were to go wrong during launch, an abort will propel the crew capsule up and away from the danger, returning it to the ground by parachute. The Launch Abort System forms the nose of the complete launcher and has rockets of its own that fire in an emergency. It, too, is discarded at altitude.
