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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A very finely knitted metallic mesh on the top parabolic net of the 'double pantograph’ large reflector demonstrated at ESTEC in November 2016. This mesh is what will eventually reflect the radio signal – doing the real work of the reflector.
This reflector was developed in an activity addressing a full large deployable antenna system through ESA’s Basic Technology Research Programme (TRP), by a consortium led by HPS GmbH in Germany, responsible for the antenna subsystem engineering and the mesh development, with Germany’s Large Space Structures GmbH as main subcontractor, responsible for the whole reflector engineering, assembly and its deployment. “Different companies and European countries joining forces in combination with ESA’s programmatic approach have resulted in an excellent technology development,” comments Ernst K. Pfeiffer of HPS GmbH.