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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Time-lapse view of Open ESTEC 2017.
More than 8 400 visitors attended this year’s Open Day at ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands, averaging around 20 new attendees every minute. In this time-lapse footage of the ESTEC Open Day 2017 we variously show people entering, visiting our Laboratory corridor, exploring our satellite test centre; watching a robotic arm being used to simulate spacecraft rendezvous, visiting the Erasmus human spaceflight centre, walking down the 200-m-long main corridor, hearing a talk from Dutch ESA astronaut André Kuipers, seeing our Mars Yard for rover testing, experiencing a Galileo-enabled helicopter rescue in VR then finally leaving for the day… until next year.