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!
Europe’s first Meteosat Third Generation Imager (MTG-I1) satellite is being launched on an Ariane 5 rocket.
The image shows the various stages between liftoff and separation. As well as MTG-I1, the rocket also carries two ‘co-passenger’ satellites: Intelsat Galaxy 35 and 36, which are injected into orbit before MTG-I1.
Carrying two completely new instruments, MTG-I1 will provide state-of-the art observations of Earth’s atmosphere and realtime monitoring of lightning events from geostationary orbit, taking weather forecasting to the next level.