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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ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet setting up the Grasp experiment, 29 April 2021.
Thomas shared this image on his social media channels with the caption: "This is neither a space throne, nor a medieval torture device, but the ESA/CNES Grasp experiment to understand how humans adapt their hand-eye coordination in space. Scientists think we use gravity to judge how much to extend our arm to grab an object (for example), and us being in space is a great way to find out! We use a VR headset to simulate tasks and the equipment monitors movement and timing for researchers on Earth to look at and take conclusions."
Follow Thomas and his Mission Alpha on his blog.