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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Teams eagerly await first signs of life from the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor. The staff at the Belgian user operations and support centre in Brussels peer at the console to see the first numbers coming in from space on 13 April 2018.
The first part to getting data is checking the communication channels. The storm hunter sends data over the International Space Station network beamed via communication satellites to a ground station in White Sands, USA, then on to the Space Station mission control in Houston, under the Atlantic ocean to the Columbus Control Centre near Munich, Germany, and finally to the Belgian user operations and support centre in Brussels.
From here, the science data centre at the Technical University of Denmark takes over and feeds the scientists with scientific data.