Euclid: an ESA-led global collaboration

Euclid is a fully European-designed mission, built and operated by ESA. Through developing and implementing the Euclid mission, ESA has been leading a global collaboration that is bringing socio-economic benefits to Europe and the rest of the world. These benefits are set to continue once the mission has launched.

Within this global collaboration, the Euclid Consortium is responsible for providing the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA also contributed to the instruments, e.g. overall development coordination, the development of the near-infrared detector for the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) and the flight detectors for the Visual Instrument (VIS). NASA provided the flight near-infrared detectors of NISP.

The Euclid project involved the collaboration of more than 300 institutions and 80 companies from 21 countries, and it has been made possible by the work and dedication of more than 3500 people: scientists, engineers, technicians, and administrative staff. To build and operate Euclid, 140 industrial contracts were signed.

The total cost of the mission is approximately 1.4 billion euros, including launch and six years of nominal science operations.

Euclid is ESA’s space telescope designed to explore the dark Universe. The mission will create the largest, most accurate 3D map of the Universe ever produced across 10 billion years of cosmic time. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how large-scale structure is distributed across space and time, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.