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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JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide running the Time experiment during on the International Space Station, 19 May 2021.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet commented on this picture: "No Aki is not asleep! He’s performing the European experiement TIME to see how astronauts' reaction times and sense of time changes in space. The virtual reality headset blocks visual cues from the outside world (Aki probably didn't know I was taking this picture) so the scientific data is more precise. Mission control and researchers want to know how we do because if our sense of timing changes in space it could have very large consequences for missions far away on the Moon or Mars, don't want to be late for a landing on another planet!"