About ESA
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.
Highlights
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Space in Member States
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Spain
Estonia
Finland
France
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
The Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Czechia
Romania
United Kingdom
Slovenia
Sweden
Switzerland
Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicAstronauts
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Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Cybersecurity in orbit
The year is 2019, and there are more than 1500 active satellites orbiting our planet. We don’t see them – we almost never think of them – but every day they make our modern lives possible, enabling an enormous range of vital services, like navigation, telecommunication and internet access.
Because of the important role of space technologies now and in the future, ensuring the safety and security of satellites is critical for civil society. This includes not only protecting space infrastructure from space-based hazards, like space weather or debris impacts, but also understanding the cybersecurity threats from Earth.
ESA regularly monitors cyber-attacks on its ground segment infrastructure – including control centres and antennas. Thanks to countermeasures in place, no damage has been caused by these attempted cyber-attacks, but events such as these highlight the importance of ensuring critical space systems do not fall victim to those with evil intent.
