Facts about the European Space Agency
- 08
Bepi Colombo, a joint ESA-JAXA mission launched in 2018, will reach Mercury in 2025 to study the planet's magnetic field and geological composition with two specialized orbiters.
- 07
Four astronauts from the European Space Agency have conducted spacewalks to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope during five servicing missions between 1993 and 2009.
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About 2,300 scientists and engineers from 22 member states work at ESA's main research center in Darmstadt, Germany, making it one of Europe's largest space technology hubs.
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Copernicus, the European Space Agency's Earth observation program, provides free satellite imagery to monitor climate change, disasters, and land use across the globe in near real-time.
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The Hubble Space Telescope, operated jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency since 1990, has captured over 1.5 million observations of celestial objects across 34 years of continuous operation.
- 03
Gaia, the European Space Agency's astrometry mission launched in 2013, has catalogued nearly 1.8 billion stars and their precise positions in the Milky Way.
- 02
Arianespace, the commercial launch operator of the European Space Agency, has conducted over 300 orbital launches since its founding in 1980.
- 01
In 2021, the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin rover was delayed until 2028 due to supply chain disruptions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.