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!
Not a spacesuit but a SCAPE suit – standing for ‘Self Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble’. Technicians don these suits before filling satellites with the toxic hydrazine fuel used for manoeuvres in space. This one was snapped by Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins at ESA’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
ESA’s Clean Space initiative is researching greener alternatives to hydrazine but for now this high-energy propellant is being used to fuel almost all satellites as well as launcher upper stages.
Edgar Martins collaborated closely with ESA to produce a comprehensive photographic survey of the Agency’s various facilities around the globe, together with those of its international partners.
Characteristically empty of people, Martins’ long-exposure photos – taken with analogue wide film cameras – possess a stark, reverent style. They document the variety of specialised installations and equipment needed to prepare missions for space, or to recreate orbital conditions for testing down on Earth.