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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The European space laboratory Columbus that is part of the International Space Station at night. ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet took this picture during his six-month Proxima mission in 2017. He commented: "The Columbus module at night: no we’re not having a disco party, it’s a vegetable growing experiment".
Columbus houses NASA's space greenhouse where researchers are growing vegetables such as salads in weightlessness. The Space Station flies around our planet every 90 minutes experiencing 16 sunsets and sunrises every 24 hours. As such there is no day and night like on Earth but the astronauts who live and work on humanity's outpost follow the GMT timezone and turn lights out at night. The pink glow is from the 'Veggie experiment' plants grow best in reddish light.