What is the ESA Academy?
ESA Academy is ESA's overarching educational programme for university students from ESA Member States, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Through a tailored transfer of space know-how and interaction with space professionals, ESA Academy takes students through a learning path that enriches their academic education. As a result, students can enhance their skills, boost their motivation and ambitions, become acquainted with the standard professional practices applied nowadays in the space sector, and be better prepared for the labour market.
ESA Academy is not only open to students already involved in space-related studies in the science and engineering fields. It is also meant for science and engineering students who did not choose space as their specialty, to show how space facilities can open a range of new research possibilities and applications, thus opening a new perspective on the learning of space disciplines.
ESA Academy is run in close collaboration with European universities and is designed to complement academic education. Its objective is to enhance the students’ educational experience and gain both practical and theoretical know-how and expertise in various disciplines, ranging from space sciences to engineering, space medicine, spacecraft operations, project and risk management, product and quality assurance, standardisation and much more.
The three pillars of ESA Academy
Officially launched in March 2016, ESA Academy brings together the ESA Education Programme elements for universities under three interconnected pillars of activity:
- Projects, a continuing programme that enables university students to gain first-hand, end-to-end experience of space-related projects.
- Training, an initiative offering university students a portfolio of different training sessions and learning opportunities.
- Engagement, an initiative offering structured collaboration models both within ESA and externally with academia, industry, and institutions to contribute together to the preparation of future talents in terms of knowledge, skills, and competences, through joint events, scholarships, conference sponsorships and internships in industry.
Projects
Since the mid-2000s, ESA has offered university students the opportunity to participate in real space-related projects. Today, these opportunities are grouped under ESA Academy’s Projects, a portfolio of recurring programme opportunities ranging from small satellites to scientific and technology experiments. In all cases, students directly experience what it takes to run the full lifecycle of a space project, from conception to operation.
Satellites for students, built by students
Fly Your Satellite! is the programme supporting student-built CubeSats- small satellites with a standard mass and size multiple of 1kg and 10 cm per side. At each programme cycle, student teams are supported in the design, integration, and testing of their CubeSat. They learn how to undergo formal technical reviews and, if they achieve readiness for flight, they prepare their satellite for a launch sponsored by ESA, either on a conventional rocket or from the International Space Station. Finally, they operate their satellite in orbit
Contact: cubesats@esa.int
Student experiments
Plenty of opportunities and platforms to run student-built experiments and enhance students’ research and engineering skills are offered every year. Experiments in the field of physics, biology, chemistry and biochemistry, geology and atmospheric sciences, material sciences, astrophysics, human physiology, and technology demonstrations can be proposed.
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Fly a Rocket!: a programme in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Space Related Education and the Norweigian Space Agency. Individual students participate in a online study course before an intensive one week sounding rocket campaign at Andøya Space Centre, Norway.
Contact: flyarocket@esa.int -
REXUS/BEXUS : a Swedish (SNSA)/German (DLR) programme, run in collaboration with ESA, allowing student experiments to fly on sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons launched from Esrange, Sweden.
Contact: rexus-bexus@esa.int -
ESA Academy Experiments programme: a programme allowing student teams a unique practical experience and training with the European Space Agency and partners, giving students an introduction into the professional world of research and development of space science and technology. The programme offers multiple platforms to conduct the experiment: the Large Diameter Centrifuge, the ZARM Drop Towers, Parabolic flights, the ICECubes Facility on board the International Space Station, the Orbital Robotics Lab and Space Rider.
Contact: academy.experiments@esa.int
Training
Established in 2016, the ESA Academy’s Training programme is meant to offer a varied portfolio of training sessions given by space professionals from all ESA fields of expertise, as well as from academia and space industry, including:
- Space engineering
- Space sciences
- Space medicine
- Spacecraft operations and communication
- Project and risk management
- Product & quality insurance
- Standardisation
- Technology transfer and innovation
- Mission planning
- and more
The training sessions are available to interested science and engineering university students, not only to those that are already engaged in space-related studies. Specific sessions are also offered to the student teams participating in ESA Academy’s Projects, as they are a perfect complement to their learning experience and can support them in the different phases of their projects.
Contact: tlp@esa.int
Engagement
Established in 2023, the ESA Academy’s Engagement is an initiative offering structured collaboration models both within ESA and externally with academia, space industry, and institutions to contribute together to the preparation of the future talents in terms of knowledge, skills, and competences, through joined opportunities for tertiary education students from eligible states.
Currently the following opportunity is available:
- The Student Conference Sponsorship programme facilitating the access to European space-related conferences by contributing to students registration fee, travel and accommodation costs.
In the coming months additional new opportunities will be available including:
- The Short Course Scholarship programme facilitating access to space-related short duration learning opportunities by contributing to students registration fee, travel, and accommodation costs.
- The Academic Scholarship programme facilitating access to space-related European academic programmes of higher education institutions by covering the tuition fees.
Contact: academy.engagement@esa.int
Training facilities at the ESA Education Training Centre
In addition to providing access to existing ESA establishments and partners’ infrastructures, ESA Academy makes use of dedicated facilities located in the ESA Education Training Centre of ESA’s ESEC-Galaxia, in Transinne, Belgium:
- The Training and Learning Facility, consisting of a training room and an educational Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) where university students attend 4 to 5 day training sessions, complementary to their academic education.
- The CubeSat Support Facility, consisting of a cleanroom equipped with an electrodynamic shaker, a thermal vacuum chamber and additional test equipment where students participating in the Fly Your Satellite! programme are guided in the construction and testing of their small satellites, and can follow hands-on demonstrations of satellite integration and testing
