Astronauts attending ESTEC Open Day 2017

First special VIP guests confirmed for this year's ESA Open Day in the Netherlands, taking place at the ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on 8 October 2017: astronauts Dumitru Prunariu of Romania, Ulf Merbold and Ernst Messerschmid of Germany, Dirk Frimout of Belgium, Claudie Haigneré of France and André Kuipers of the Netherlands. Plus more still to be confirmed. 

For now, please save the date. You can register to attend ESA’s Open Day in the Netherlands from 3 July.

In place for more than half a century, the ESTEC European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk on the North Sea coast is ESA’s largest establishment, focused on developing technology, planning missions and testing satellites.

The hub of our continent’s space effort, this is where the majority of European space projects are born, developed and tested in advance of their flights into orbit.