European Space Agency or ESA (ESA; French: Agence spatiale européenne, ASE) is an international organisation with 22 member countries. Its job is to explore space.
| |
 ESA Headquarters in Paris, France | |
| Abbreviation |
|
|---|---|
| Formation | 30 May 1975 |
| Headquarters | Paris, Île-de-France, France |
Official language | English, French and German[1][2] |
Administrator | Johann-Dietrich Wörner Director General |
| Guiana Space Centre | |
Parent organisation | |
Budget |  €5.72 billion (~US$6.43 billion) (2019)[3] |
| Website | www |
Its headquarters are in Paris, France. ESA has a staff of more than 2,000 with an annual budget of about €4.43 billion / US$5.51 billion (2015).[4]
The member countries of ESA are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
ESA's space flight programme includes
- human spaceflight,
- the launch and operations of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon,
- Earth observation.
- running a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana,
- designing launch vehicles.
The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle.
On February 21, 2024, the agency's ERS-2 satellite came into the atmosphere of the Earth.[5][6] The gravitational field (or gravity) of Earth [resulted] in the satellite ending up hitting the ocean.[5] Earlier the satellite functioned (or worked) as a European Remote-Sensing Satellite.[7]
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