European Space Agency

:This article is about the European Space Agency. For other meanings of ESA, see ESA (disambiguation).

History and goals

• European Space Agency History 1958-1987 Volume I 458 pages PDF
• European Space Agency History 1958-1987 Volume II 691 pages PDF

ESA's mission

Since the Cold War ended with the fall of the Soviet Union's "iron curtain," space agencies around the world had to refocus and revise their visions and goals. In an interview with JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, Jean-Jacques Dordain ESA's Director General (since 2003) outlined briefly the European Space agency's mission:

Related Topics:
Cold War - Soviet Union - Iron curtain - Space agencies - JAXA - Jean-Jacques Dordain

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Today space activities are pursued for the benefit of citizens, and citizens are asking for a better quality of life on earth. They want greater security and economic wealth, but they also want to pursue their dreams, to increase their knowledge, and they want younger people to be attracted to the pursuit of science and technology.

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I think that space can do all of this: it can produce a higher quality of life, better security, more economic wealth, and also fulfil our citizens' dreams and thirst for knowledge, and attract the young generation. This is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be even more important in the future. {{ref|Jaxainterview}}

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History of ESA's foundation

After the Second World War many European scientists had left Europe in order to work either in the US or the Soviet Union. Although the booming recovering process of the 50s made it possible for European countries to invest into research and specifically into space related activities, European scientists realised solely national projects would not be able to compete with the two major superpowers. In 1958, only months after the Sputnik shock, Eduardo Amaldi and Pierre Auger, two prominent members of the European scientific community at that time, met to discuss the foundation of a common European space agency.

Related Topics:
Second World War - 1958 - Sputnik shock - Eduardo Amaldi - Pierre Auger

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The European nations decided to have two different agencies, one concerned to develop a launch system ELDO (European Launch Development Organisation) and the precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation) that was established on March 20, 1964 per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962. From 1968 to 1972 ESRO could celebrate its first successes. Seven research satellites were brought into orbit, all by US launch systems.

Related Topics:
ELDO - ESRO - March 20 - 1964 - June 14 - 1962 - 1968 - 1972

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The ESRO's successor organisation ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Centre, based in Noordwijk, the Netherlands) is still a part of ESA, though ESA itself is a much bigger organisation today. ESA in its current form was founded in 1974, when ESRO was merged with ELDO. ESA was constituted of 11 founding members including not only then EU-members (correctly stated: EC-members) but also Switzerland and Norway. ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emissions in the universe.

Related Topics:
ESTEC - Noordwijk - The Netherlands - 1974 - ELDO - Switzerland - Norway - 1975 - Cos-B

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From its beginnings to a leading institution

Beginning in the 1970s, when the space race between the US and the Soviet Union had tuned down and space budgets were cut dramatically in both superpowers, ESA established itself as a forerunner in space exploration. ESA joined NASA and the UK in the IUE, the world's first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated very successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to study the Comets Halley and Grigg-Skejllerup. Hipparcos, a star-mapping mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses and the Hubble Space Telescope were all jointly carried out with NASA. Recent scientific missions in cooperation with NASA include the Cassini-Huygens space probe, to which ESA contributed by building the Titan landing module Huygens.

Related Topics:
1970s - Space race - Superpower - IUE - Telescope - 1986 - Giotto - Hipparcos - 1989 - 1990s - SOHO - Ulysses - Hubble Space Telescope - Cassini-Huygens - Titan - Huygens

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As the successor of the ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for unmanned scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, brought mostly-commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward. The next two developments of the Ariane rocket were intermediate stages in the development of a more advanced launch system, the Ariane 4, which operated between 1988 and 2003 and would have established ESA as the world leader in commercial space launches. However its successor, the currently used Ariane 5 rocket, had starting problems. The first launch of the lightest variation of Ariane 5 in 1996 failed as did the first flight of the Ariane 5 ECA, a heavy modification of Ariane, in 2002. Despite these failures the Ariane 5 rocket has established itself within the heavily competitive commercial space launch market since its first successful flight in 1997 and prospectively will reach 25 successful launches by 2006.

Related Topics:
ELDO - Ariane 1 - 1979 - 1984 - Ariane 4 - 1988 - 2003 - Ariane 5 - 1996 - 2002 - 1997 - 2006

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The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become NASA's main competitor in scientific space research. While ESA had relied on cooperation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances (such as tough legal restrictions on information sharing by the American military) led to decisions to rely more on itself and on cooperation with Russia. A recent press issue thus stated: Russia is ESA's first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. There is a framework agreement between ESA and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation and partnership in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and cooperation is already under way in two different areas of launcher activity that will bring benefits to both partners. {{ref|russia}}

Related Topics:
Research - Military

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Most notable for its new self-confidence are ESA's own recent successful missions Smart-1, a probe testing cutting-edge new space propulsion technology, the Mars Express mission as well as the development of the Ariane 5 rocket.

Related Topics:
Smart-1 - Mars Express - Ariane 5

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ESA's further goals and aims

ESA has ambitious space plans that may be divided into three large categories. First, ESA will maintain its scientific and research projects (e.g. tests and developments of new propulsion systems), try to find ways to reduce costs for their rocket fleet while enhancing their capacities, honour its commitments regarding the ISS and engage in further space exploration like the Venus Express mission that will launch in late 2005. The second category has many parallels to NASA's plans and constitutes of astronomy-space missions such as the Planck probe studying the cosmic microwave background (2007), the Herschel space observatory (2006), Corot that will be a milestone in the search for exoplanets and is due to launch in June 2006 or the Darwin interferometer. Darwin will mark the last step in the ultimate goal of discovering more exoplanets and the first Earth-size planet outside our solar system.

Related Topics:
ISS - Space exploration - Venus Express - 2005 - Planck - Herschel - Corot - Exoplanets - June - 2006 - Darwin - Earth - Planet - Solar system

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While the projects described above are more or less similar in their structure and aim as NASA's and other space agencies' plans, the ESA's Mars project is different. The Aurora Programme lays out a time table for future missions to Mars, however in contrast to NASA's plans there is no emphasis on manned or unmanned lunar missions, it rather includes several flagship missions designed to develop and test technology needed for a manned European Mars mission currently planned for 2030. Among these flagship missions is ExoMars, a mission involving a Mars rover. Until 2005 ExoMars was planned to be a joint mission between NASA and ESA, however obstacles such as American technology law that prohibits sharing of classified space technology information led to ESA deciding to go for it alone. The mission is currently planned to launch in 2011. An even more ambitious Mars project is the Mars Sample Return Mission, that is planned as a follow-up mission to ExoMars. It will involve the first time a probe will return of samples from another planet, making it necessary to construct an ascent module that is capable of starting into Mars orbit and dock with the original probe.

Related Topics:
Mars - Aurora Programme - Lunar - European - 2030 - ExoMars - Mars rover - 2005 - 2011 - Mars Sample Return Mission

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