The ESTEC Corporate Video 2003

The European Space Agency's ESTEC establishment Corporate Video. ESTEC stands for the “European Space Research and Technology Centre” and is situated in Noordwijk in The Netherlands. The principal activities of this establishment are:

- Managing ESA space projects and preparing future projects; the projects themselves are developed and built by the aerospace industry in the different ESA member states.

- Providing technical support to ESA project teams; ESTEC has specialists and laboratories in virtually all space-related disciplines.

- Developing new space technology for future ESA projects in close collaboration with European industry and research organisations.

- Quality monitoring of ESA projects, including the formulation of standards and procedures and the specifications of materials and components.

- Testing satellites; ESTEC has the largest spacecraft test facilities in Europe.

This video provides an overview of the important role of the ESTEC site as part of the whole European Space Agency and is available in 4 different languages: English, French, German and Dutch. The video includes:

0:11 Introduction to the centre ESTEC, with animated videos of ENVISAT, pictures from scientific satellites and results for observations of ESA satellites

0:31 ESA has the following principal sites: ESA Headquarter in Paris ( France), the technological development site ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, the spacecraft operations centre ESOC in Darmstad (Germany), the European astronaut corps centre EAS in Hőln (Germany) and the Earth Observation centre ESRIN in Frascati (Italy).

0:46 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre – presentation of the activity done by the more than 1900 people work here on dozens of space projects.

1:29 How are satellites born? 5-10 years are needed to prepare a new satellite.

2:22 Who builds the satellites? The European satellites are build by commercial companies, accountable to a ESA project team at ESTEC. The satellites must be tested thoroughly, e.g. the vibration testing simulating the vibrations experienced during a launch is done in ESTEC test centre. In the test centre the experts expose the satellite to the vacuum conditions and the extreme temperatures in space for several weeks.

3:32 Who delivers the satellites into space? When testing in ESTEC has been completed the satellite is packed for transport. A team of specialists accompany it to prepare it for launch. Dependent on the mission the satellite is put into orbit by an Ariane 5, a Space Shuttle or another launch vehicle, e.g. Soyuz rocket.

4:14 What happens when the satellite arrives in space? Once the satellite has arrived safely in space the responsibility passes to the ESOC ground control centre in Darmstadt. The ESTEC specialists are still involved in starting up the satellite and testing that is is working all right in space.

4:42 A team of ESA Astronomers also carry out research at ESTEC, while other experts in Noordwijk set up the experiments for the Internal Space Station (ISS)

5:01 How is ESTEC involved in the International Space Station? The European contribution to the space station such as the Columbus space laboratory and the ATV cargo vehicle were developed at ESTEC. A number of ESA astronauts are stationed in the Netherlands so they can share their knowledge and experience with the ESTEC experts.

5:33 There is an information centre in ESTEC for commercial companies and universities who want to conduct experiments in space in weightless environment, in the ESTEC Erasmus building. It is here that new experiments for the space station are selected.

6:21 The end