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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Ground station engineering teams at ESA are particularly excited by a new initiative aimed at redeveloping part of Goonhilly Earth Station, an existing commercial ground tracking station located in Cornwall, UK, to enable it to provide Europe’s first deep-space tracking services on a commercial basis.
Under the project, the station’s GHY-6 antenna, above, built in 1985 and featuring a 32 m-diameter dish, will be upgraded under ESA technical oversight to provide high bit-rate data links for missions that travel far from Earth – typically exceeding 2 million km distance.
These include not only missions to our somewhat closer Moon, but also to the more distant and scientifically important Sun-Earth Lagrange points, to asteroids and to planetary destinations like Mars.