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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25 years ago, on 10 December 1999, ESA’s X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton was launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on an Ariane 5. Since then, the spacecraft has been orbiting Earth more than 4500 times, logging 1.5 billion km and gathering uniquely sensitive observations of the X-ray sky.
Thanks to XMM-Newton, scientists can study in detail some of the most dramatic events and phenomena in our Universe. With a trove of more than a million detections of X-ray sources under its belt, the space telescope has contributed fundamentally to a better understanding of Active Galactic Nuclei, stars and extended sources such as the fiery hot intergalactic gas in clusters of galaxies.