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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In 2017, ESA’s European Space Operations Centre will celebrate its 50th anniversary, having been inaugurated on 8 September 1967 as part of the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO).
Within months, the centre was controlling its first mission, ESRO-2B , a 74 kg satellite carrying seven instruments to study solar and cosmic radiation and their interaction with Earth and its magnetosphere.
The 1970s were a busy time at the control centre, with the number of missions steadily increasing.
The decade saw 10 new missions launched by ESRO, of which eight (HEOS-A2, TD-1A, ESRO-4, COS-B, GEOS-1, Meteosat-1, GEOS-2 and OTS-2) were operated from here.
In 1975, ESRO joined with the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) to become the European Space Agency.
Today, teams are operating comprising 18 spacecraft on 11 missions, including Mars Express, Gaia, ExoMars, Sentinel-1 and -2, and CryoSat. Twelve more missions are in preparation for launch in the next few years.
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