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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Extending part of ESA’s Test Centre in preparation for the construction of ESA’s Large Space Simulator (LSS) back in 1983.
The LSS was an enlargement of a previous thermal vacuum chamber, the Dynamic Test Chamber – seen here – which then had a 12-m diameter horizontal lamphouse added to one side to accommodate a Sun simulator and mirror array capable of producing a 6-m diameter beam of sunlight.
Some 35 years on the 15-m high 10-m diameter LSS remains the largest thermal vacuum chamber in Europe, simulating the vacuum and temperature extremes of orbital space.
ESA’s Test Centre at Noordwijk in the Netherlands collects together test facilities to simulate every aspect of the space environment in cleanroom conditions under a single roof.