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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In Toulouse, France, at the Airbus Defense & Space facilities engineers and technicians are performing the final tests on Eutelsat’s EB9B telecommunications satellite and its hosted payloads EDRS-A and the Italian space agency ASI’s Opportunity Payload.
EDRS stands for European Data Relay System and has been designed to provide Europe with a fast and reliable extension to its telecommunications network.
EDRS-A is the first of two EDRS nodes and it will be launched on-board the Eutelsat satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2015.
This video explains what is EDRS and includes interviews with Magali Vaissiere, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, ESA and Michael Wittig, EDRS Project Manager, ESA.