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!
A protective container specially designed for the new family of telecommunications satellites developed under ESA’s Spacebus Neo Partnership Project has arrived in Cannes.
The impressive container measures 14 x 5.4 x 4.2 metres and weighs 23 tonnes empty, or between 30 and 37 tonnes with a satellite inside.
It is temperature and pressure controlled, hermetically sealed to maintain the cleanliness of the satellite and has a damping system to absorb shocks and vibrations during transport.
The container can be used to transport satellites to launch sites as different as Kourou in French Guiana or Baikonur in Russia.
Satellite-maker Thales Alenia Space selected Garofoli, an engineering firm based in Terni, Italy, to design and build the container to the challenging requirements.
The first Spacebus Neo satellite, Eutelsat Konnect, will soon be loaded into the container at Thales Alenia Space’s manufacturing site.
The container and its precious cargo will then be driven by truck to Nice airport, loaded onto a huge Antonov cargo plane and flown to the launch site, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou.