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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This timelapse was produced by NASA's Crew Earth Observation group at Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA, by combining pictures taken from the International Space Station in 2013. Astronauts from Expedition 34 on the Station set up a camera to record a sequence of shots on 3 January from 11:43:46 to 15:49:31 GMT. The Space Station flies over Earth at around 28 800 km/h so it completed two orbits of our planet starting from north-western Australia ending in this video at eastern Quebec. The moon can be seen rising on the left of the video. Astronauts on the orbital outpost experience 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours while on the Space Station.
The Gateway to astronaut photography on Earth archives all pictures astronauts take from their unique viewpoint, 300 km above our planet:
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov