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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On 21 January 2025, engineers at ESA’s technical heart (ESTEC) connected the two main parts of the Smile spacecraft, putting it into its final flight configuration.
In this image we see the payload module, which hosts three of the spacecraft’s four science instruments. The payload module was built by Airbus under the responsibility of ESA. Airbus quality assurance engineer Miguel Garcia Valenzuela Parera inspects the module, making sure that it is clean and secure, ready to be lifted up and attached to the main spacecraft platform.
Find out more about the testing and integration of Smile at ESTEC
Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a 50–50 collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
[Image description: An engineer inspects a spacecraft on a platform in a cleanroom. We see the internal wires and other parts of the spacecraft.]