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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At almost 11 pm local time, the Sun was still shining over this impressive large glacier near the town of Pyramiden in central Svalbard. One of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas, Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. On 26 July 2020, during commissioning of the high-definition camera and at an altitude of over 500 km, OPS-SAT took this cool image.
The long, horizontal body of water that runs through the image is the notorious 32 km long Austfjorden fjord of Svalbard.
A flying laboratory, OPS-SAT is the very first of its kind. With an experimental computer ten times more powerful than any current ESA spacecraft, the 30-cm high cubesat is devoted to demonstrating drastically improved mission control capabilities that will arise when satellites can fly more powerful on-board computers. Find out more about the mission, and how you could apply to use it to test out your experiment in space.