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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Artist Melanie King has reimagined representations of the scientific instruments aboard the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, painted using light-sensitive chemicals and illuminated with ultraviolet light. She created the work in collaboration with Lucie Green, a professor of physics at University College London who is involved with Solar Orbiter. Solar Orbiter is an ESA-led mission to capture solar images from closer than any spacecraft ever before and, for the first time, examine the Sun’s uncharted polar regions. Launched in February 2020, it is due to start scientific operations in November and to approach as close as 42 million kilometres to our nearest star.