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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Hundreds of kilometres below ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano's floating feet on the Interntaional Space Station, a robot on Earth obeyed the European astronaut’s commands. NASA’s K10 planetary rover, a small, four-wheel robot, scouted a rocky, lunar-like terrain in the US.
Earlier on Luca’s mission, his crewmate, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, drove K10 from space around the Roverscape, an outdoor field at the NASA Ames Research Center in California, USA.
Space exploration will most likely involve sending robotic explorers to test the waters on uncharted planets before sending humans to land. ESA and NASA are running tests to prepare for these robotic explorers.