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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The technical heart of our continent’s space activities needs a lot of power to keep it going. More than four kilometres of heavy duty 10 kilovolt cables like this one run beneath ESA’s ESTEC establishment in the Netherlands.
Each underground cable contains three wires and a screen, sufficient to supply the energy demand for several ESTEC buildings. Set up in a ring configuration for added robustness, the cables are linked to more than twenty-eight 10kV power stations, multiple transformers and gear switches, used to distribute electrical power over the site and to change the voltage level as needed.
ESTEC’s Test Centre for satellites, suite of technical laboratories and ventilation systems and so on have very different current, voltage and stability requirements than its ordinary offices and meeting rooms.
This image is one of the 99 Objects of ESA ESTEC, an ongoing collection of intriguing, often surprising artefacts helping tell the story of more than half a century of activity at ESA’s technical heart.