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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Some of the rarest, most precious materials on Earth originated very, very far away, and are only available to us now because of the incredible Hayabusa mission of JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The Hayabusa spacecraft landed on asteroid 25143 Itokawa in November 2005. Against all the odds, it scraped up about 1 500 tiny grains of surface material and brought them back to Earth. These Hayabusa grains have become the focus of scientific study around the world – and three of them are currently being examined at ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands. Find out more in this video, originally created as part of ESA’s joint, live webcast with ESO for Asteroid Day 2018.