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European Space Agency

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Space transport

   Logo of the European Space Agency

   The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an
   inter-governmental organization dedicated to the exploration of space,
   currently with 17 member states. Its headquarters are in Paris, France.
   ESA has a staff (excluding sub-contractors and national space agencies)
   of about 1,900 with an annual budget of about €3 billion in 2006.

   ESA's spaceport is the Centre Spatial Guyanais (Guyana Space Centre) in
   Kourou, French Guiana, a site chosen because it is close to the equator
   from which commercially important orbits are easier to access. During
   the 1990s ESA gained the position of market leader in commercial space
   launches and in recent years ESA has established itself as a major
   player in space exploration.

   ESA science missions are based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands,
   Earth Observation missions at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy, ESA Mission
   Control ( ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany, and the European Astronauts
   Centre ( PACI), that trains astronauts for future missions is situated
   in Cologne, Germany.

History and goals

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:

     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.

     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.

History of foundation

   GEOS-ESA, a satellite studying the Earth's magnetosphere, launched
   1977, an example of early ESA space research activity.
   Enlarge
   GEOS-ESA, a satellite studying the Earth's magnetosphere, launched
   1977, an example of early ESA space research activity.

   After the Second World War many European scientists had left Western
   Europe in order to work either in the US or the Soviet Union. Although
   the booming recovering process of the 1950s made it possible for
   Western European countries to invest into research and specifically
   into space related activities, Western 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,
   Edoardo Amaldi and Pierre Auger, two prominent members of the Western
   European scientific community at that time, met to discuss the
   foundation of a common Western European space agency. The meeting was
   attended by scientific representatives from eight countries, including
   Harrie Massey (UK).

   The Western 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, and 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 celebrated its first successes. Seven research
   satellites were brought into orbit, all by US launch systems.

   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. The ESA
   in its current form was founded in 1974, when ESRO was merged with
   ELDO. The ESA was constituted of 10 founding members: Belgium, Germany,
   Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden,
   Switzerland and Spain . ESA launched its first major scientific mission
   in 1975, Cos-B, a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emissions in the
   universe.

From its beginnings to a leading institution

   Launch of an Ariane 1 in Kourou in 1979
   Enlarge
   Launch of an Ariane 1 in Kourou in 1979

   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.

   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 did establish ESA as the world
   leader in commercial space launches in the 1990s. Its successor, 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.

   The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become, along with agencies
   like NASA, JAXA, and Roscosmos, one of the major participants 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 United
   States 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.

   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.

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 was
   launched in late 2005. The second category has many parallels to NASA's
   plans and constitutes of astronomy-space missions such as the Planck
   Surveyor studying the cosmic microwave background (2008), the Herschel
   space observatory (2008), Corot that will be a milestone in the search
   for extrasolar planets and is due to launch in 2007 or the Darwin
   interferometer.

   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 2013. 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.

   Among the action for returning to the society the investment, they have
   developed the SCOS 2000 satellite control centre, and they allow the
   use of it free of charge to any European firm.

Member countries, budget and organisations

Member countries and strategic partners

   ██ ESA member states██ PECS states
   Enlarge
   ██ ESA member states██ PECS states

   ESA comprises the national space organisations and other entities of
   these seventeen countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,
   Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway,
   Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

   Many countries are likely to join ESA in the coming years, especially
   the countries who were part of the EU-enlargement in 2004. In addition
   ESA entered into important partnership agreements with non-member
   countries:
     * Hungary, the Czech Republic and Romania signed the five-year Plan
       for European Cooperating State (PECS), that is aimed at preparing
       the states for full membership. Their firms can bid for and receive
       contracts to work on programmes. The countries can participate in
       almost all programmes, except for the Basic Technology Research
       Programme. The membership fees are much lower than with full
       membership.
     * Poland is likely to be the next to sign PECS documents.
     * Since January 1, 1979, Canada has the special status of cooperating
       state with the ESA. By virtue of this accord, Canadian Space Agency
       takes part in ESA's deliberative bodies and decision-making and
       also in ESA's programmes and activities. Canadian firms can bid for
       and receive contracts to work on programmes. The accord has a
       provision ensuring a fair industrial return to Canada.
     * ESA has entered into a major joint venture with Russia
     * Since China started to invest more money into space activities, the
       Chinese Space Agency has sought international partnerships. ESA is,
       beside the Russian Space Agency, one of its most important
       partners. Recently the two space agencies cooperated in the
       development of the Double Star Mission.

Languages

   All meetings of the agency are held in English, French and German, with
   translation provided. All official documents are also available in
   these three languages although other documents are only published in
   French and English.

Relationship with the European Union

   The ESA is not within the structures of the European Union (EU)—note
   that its membership contains non‐EU countries such as Switzerland and
   Norway. Switzerland and Norway are, however, within the EFTA. There are
   ties between those organisations, with various agreements in place and
   being worked on, to establish the legal status of ESA with regard to
   the EU. There are common goals between ESA and the EU, and ESA has an
   EU liaison office in Brussels.

Budget

Overall budget

   The budget of ESA was announced as €2.977 billion for 2005 (a ten
   percent increase on 2004) and for 2006 is estimated at €2.904 billion.
   A large part of ESA's budget is invested in ESA's launch vehicles that
   are currently the most expensive part of ESA's activities (Twenty-two
   percent of the budget goes into launch vehicles; human space flight is
   second in budget expenditures). In 2005, the three largest
   contributors, together funding two thirds of ESA's budget, are France
   (29.3%), Germany (22.7%) and Italy (14.2%).

   An important ministerial conference approved nearly all of ESA's budget
   requests in December 2005. The budget for the mandatory ESA programme,
   parts of the optional programme (i.e. optional for ESA's member states
   such as the ISS involvement) as well as important projects such as
   Aurora or the EU-backed Galileo navigation system have been approved.
   No decision has been reached with regard to ESA's involvement in the
   Russian Kliper project, a feasibility study worth €50 million was not
   approved. ESA's budget will stay at about the same, however
   inflation-adjusted, level as 2005 throughout the next 5 years.

Comparison with NASA

   In comparison with NASA's budget of sixteen billion dollars (€13
   billion), ESA's budget of €3 billion superficially looks considerably
   less. However, in order to make a true comparison on funding levels
   between the U.S. and those European nations involved with the ESA, more
   factors have to be considered:
     * ESA member states fund separate national space agencies as well:
       Unlike the US, European nations maintain both national space
       programs and contribute to ESA's space activities. Most of those
       national space agencies have considerable budgets provided for
       scientific space research and other space related programs as well
       as joint projects with ESA or other international programs. For
       instance, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) has a national budget for
       2005 of about €700 million, of which half is contributed to ESA and
       the other half is spent on its national or other programs. The
       German Aerospace Centre (German acronym DLR) has a separate budget
       for 2005 of €700 million The French space program in 2005 was
       funded with €1.7 billion, of which €685 million are contributed to
       ESA and the rest of appr. €1 billion to CNES's own budget and other
       national space programs. Taking these non-ESA space allocated funds
       of only those 3 major European countries together would amount to
       €2 billion. Would all ESA memberstates national space agencies be
       added together with ESA's budget would more than double ESA's €3
       billion budget.

     * ESA does not focus on human spaceflight: Only about 16% of ESA's
       budget are human spaceflight related (€500 million). In contrast
       considerable costs are incurred by NASA in maintaining the aging
       Space Shuttle. A single Space Shuttle launch costs more than $1
       billion and during the last decades up to one-third of NASA's
       budget had to be invested in the Shuttle to keep it flying (for
       2005, $5 billion are allocated for the Space Shuttle constituting
       30% of the budget). Although ESA had plans for an own manned
       spacecraft such as Hermes, it has never actually developed or
       maintained a manned launch system, rather it has paid for seats on
       the American and Russian spacecrafts, and therefore was and is not
       focussing on a fully independent human spaceflight program. For a
       true comparison between the budgets and Europe's and the US' focus
       in spaceflight this difference should be taken into account, that
       is for all non-human space related activities ESA memberstates and
       the US are not very far apart in terms of budgets (NASA's budget
       without the ISS, Space Shuttle and other human spaceflight related
       activity is about $9 billion, ESA and ESA memberstates allocate
       about €4.5-5 billion (about $6 billion) to non-human spaceflight
       related space projects.) With NASA's commitment to the Vision for
       Space Exploration its focus on human spaceflight and budget
       expenditure for this segment of its space program will increase
       over the next decades. ESA has not stated that it intends to
       significantly enhance spending on human spaceflight.

     * NASA's and ESA's administration structure is different: After the
       space race activities of the 1960s and early 1970s, NASA has
       maintained a large administration and bureaucracy that still
       burdens both current projects and NASA budgets. ESA was never
       involved in large-scale political activity such as the space race,
       it therefore has always had a small and efficient structure and
       agency level comparable to a private company, as only about 1900
       people are directly employed by ESA and many projects are allocated
       over different organisations in several European countries, with
       ESA coordinating these projects but not directly employing the
       people involved in the project (decentralized structure).

     * Both the US and Europe maintain space related projects outside
       their space programs: As it is the case with the United States as
       well, some highly expensive European space projects are not within
       ESA's budget, such as the Galileo global positioning system.
       Funding for this €4 billion project comes from special agreements
       between EU members and other international partners. Space related
       military spending both in the US and in Europe would increase space
       related spending if counted towards those entities' space related
       activity.

Comparison with other space agencies

   In terms of absolute cash budget size, the ESA has the second largest
   budget after NASA, with the Japanese JAXA having annual funds of €1.6
   billion at its disposal taking the third place, followed by the
   ambitious Chinese Space Agency with around €1 billion and the Russian
   Space Agency which incurred a considerable boost in funding in 2006
   with an annual federal budget of $800–900 million. The Indian Space
   Agency has about the same amount of funds available as Russia. If not
   counted as part of Europe's total space budget (ex-Russian) together
   with ESA's €3 billion space budget (as outlined above) and other
   European space agencies, the French Space Agency would be in 4th place
   with €1.7 billion.

   One point in favour of the Russian Space Agency, the Chinese and the
   Indian space programmes, is that their budgets are growing rapidly
   largely stemming from the high growth rates of their economies, which
   leads to increasing amounts of money available with the government.

   It should be noted that space programmes have high labour costs, thus
   in order to compare the actual funds available for each space agency
   some adjustment with regard to purchasing power parity in each country
   should be made. As PPP is 5.5 for India and 4.5 for China, their space
   programme budgets are actually worth more than the absolute euro/dollar
   figures. Still, considering that Russia, Europe, the US, China, India
   and Japan are all competing in commercial space launches and costs for
   rocket launches are in the same range for all of the forementioned
   countries, it seems that a modifier lower than 4 or 5 would be
   warranted for a true comparison of national space funding. A very good
   example of the true comparison of funding is the Russian Space Agency
   which partly due to its large experience in LEO manned space flight but
   also due to a higher purchasing power parity could sustain a manned
   space program comparable to NASA throughout the last 15 years despite
   its dramatically lower budget.

Notable national space agencies

     * The Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) (National Centre for
       Space Study) is the French government space agency
       (administratively, a "public establishment of industrial and
       commercial character"). Its headquarters are in central Paris.
     * The Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana or ASI) was
       founded in 1988 to promote, coordinate and conduct space activities
       in Italy. Operating under the Ministry of the Universities and of
       Scientific and Technological Research, the agency cooperates with
       numerous entities active in space technology and with the president
       of the Council of Ministers. Internationally, the ASI provides
       Italy's delegation to the Council of the European Space Agency and
       to its subordinate bodies.
     * The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) (German: Deutsches Zentrum für
       Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V.) is the national research centre for
       aviation and space flight of the Federal Republic of Germany and of
       other member states in the Helmholtz Association. Its extensive
       research and development projects are included in national and
       international cooperative programmes. In addition to its research
       projects, the centre is the assigned space agency of Germany
       bestowing headquarters of German space flight activities and its
       associates.
     * The British National Space Centre (BNSC) is a partnership of the UK
       government departments which are active in space. Through the BNSC
       the partners provide delegates to represent the UK on the various
       ESA governing bodies. Each partner funds its own programme.

Launch vehicle fleet

   ESA has made great progress towards its goal of having a complete fleet
   of launch vehicles in service, competing in all sectors of the launch
   market. ESA's fleet will soon consist of three major rocket designs,
   Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega. Rocket launches are carried out by
   Arianespace, an ESA subsidiary (a minority share is held by EADS as
   well), at ESA's spaceport in French Guiana. Because many communication
   satellites have equatorial orbits, launches from French Guiana are able
   to take larger payloads into space than from other northern spaceports.
   In addition equatorial launches give spacecrafts an extra 'push' of
   nearly 500 m/s due to the higher rotation velocity of someone standing
   on the equator than near the Earth's axis where rotation velocity
   approaches nil.

Ariane 5

   The Ariane 5 rocket is the primary launcher of the ESA. Its maximum
   estimated payload is 6–10 metric tons to GTO and up to 21 metric tons
   to LEO. The launch craft has been in service since 1997 and replaced
   the Ariane 4. The Ariane rocket exists in several specifications, the
   heaviest one of these is the Ariane 5 ECA that has been successfully
   launched in February 2005 for the first time, after it failed during
   its first test flight in 2002.

   ESA's Ariane 1, 2, 3 and 4 launchers (the latter of which was ESA's
   long time workhorse) have been retired.

Soyuz launch vehicle

   Soyuz is a Russian medium payload (ca. 3 metric tons to GTO) launcher
   to be brought into ESA service in 2007. ESA has entered into a €340
   million joint venture with the Russian Federal Space Agency over the
   use of the Soyuz launcher. Under the agreement, the Russian agency will
   manufacture Soyuz rocket parts for ESA, which will then be shipped to
   French Guiana for assembly. ESA benefits because it gains a medium
   payloads launcher, complementing its fleet while saving on development
   costs. In addition, the Soyuz rocket—which has been the Russian's space
   launch workhorse for some 40 years—is proven technology with a good
   safety record, which ESA might be happy to use for launching humans
   into space. Russia also benefits in that it will get access to the
   Kourou launch site. Launching from Kourou rather than Baikonur will
   allow the Russians to almost double the Soyuz payload (3.0 tonnes vs.
   1.7 tonnes), because of Kourou's closer proximity to the equator. Both
   agencies benefit from the long term strategic cooperation that in
   addition will be used to jointly develop future technology. It is
   perhaps worth noting that France (ESA's largest contributor) has
   historically had good relations with Russia, which contributed to
   reaching the agreement.

Vega

   Vega is ESA's small payload (ca. 1.5 metric tons to 700 km orbit)
   launcher; its first launch is planned for 2007. The leading ESA's
   member state for the Vega Programme is Italy contributing 65% of the
   costs. Vega itself has been designed to be a body launcher with three
   solid propulsion stages and an additional liquid propulsion upper
   module to place the cargo into the exact orbit intended. For a
   small-cargo rocket it is remarkable that Vega will be able to place
   multiple payloads into orbit.

Human space flight

History

   Jean-Loup Chrétien became the first Western European to fly into space.
   Enlarge
   Jean-Loup Chrétien became the first Western European to fly into space.

   At the time ESA was formed, its main goals did not encompass human
   space flight, rather it considered itself to be primarily a scientific
   research organisation for unmanned space exploration in contrast to its
   American and Soviet counterparts. It is therefore not surprising that
   the first non-Soviet European in space was not an ESA astronaut on a
   European space craft: It was Czechoslovak Vladimir Remek who in 1978
   became the first non-Soviet European in space (the first European in
   space being Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union) — on a Soviet Soyuz
   spacecraft, followed by the Pole Mirosław Hermaszewski and East German
   Sigmund Jähn in the same year. This Soviet cooperation programme, known
   as Intercosmos, primarily involved the participation of Eastern bloc
   countries, however in 1982, Jean-Loup Chrétien became the first western
   European cosmonaut on a flight to the Soviet Salyut 7 space station.

   Because Chrétien did not officially fly into space as an ESA astronaut,
   but rather as a member of the French CNES astronaut corps, the German
   Ulf Merbold is considered the first ESA astronaut to fly into space. He
   participated in the STS-9 space shuttle mission that included the first
   use of the European built Spacelab in 1983. STS-9 marked the beginning
   of an extensive ESA/NASA joint partnership that included dozens of
   space flights of ESA astronauts in the following years. Beside paying
   for seats on the Space Shuttle, ESA continued its human space flight
   cooperation with the Soviet Union and later Russia, including numerous
   visits to Mir.

   During the latter half of the 1980s, European human space flights
   changed from being the exception to routine and therefore, in 1990, the
   European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany was established. It
   selects and trains prospective astronauts and is responsible for the
   coordination with international partners especially with regards to the
   International Space Station. As of 2006, the ESA corps officially
   counts 12 members, including nationals from all the large Western
   European countries except the United Kingdom.

Astronaut Corps

   The 16 men who have trained as astronauts under the auspices of the ESA
   are:
     * Jean-François Clervoy
     * Frank De Winne
     * Pedro Duque
     * Reinhold Ewald
     * Léopold Eyharts
     * Umberto Guidoni
     * Christer Fuglesang
     * André Kuipers
     * Paolo Nespoli
     * Claude Nicollier
     * Philippe Perrin - did not train as ESA astronaut, but CNES
       astronaut
     * Thomas Reiter
     * Hans Schlegel
     * Gerhard Thiele
     * Michel Tognini
     * Roberto Vittori

   Of this list Umberto Guidoni, Michel Tognini, Gerhard Thiele and
   Philippe Perrin have retired, which leaves 12 ESA astronauts in active
   status, among whom two, Fuglesang and Nespoli, have not flown yet.
   Claude Nicollier is scheduled to retire soon.

   ESA astronauts to have visited the ISS are:
     * Guidoni(I), ESA, 9th ISS flight (6A) Raffaello MPLM, STS-100/ISS,
       2001- 04-19 – 2001- 05-01
     * Haigneré (F), CNES Andromède, Soyuz/ISS, 2001- 10-21 – 2001- 10-31
     * Vittori (I), ASI Marco Polo, Soyuz/ISS, 2002- 04-25 – 2002- 05-05
     * Perrin (F), NASA/CNES, ISS assembly flight UF-2, STS-111/ISS, 2002-
       06-05 – 2002- 06-19 (Remark: was a CNES, not an ESA astronaut at
       the time of his mission)
     * De Winne (B), ESA, Odissea, Soyuz/ISS, 2002- 10-30 – 2002- 11-10
     * Duque (E), ESA, Cervantes, Soyuz/ISS, 2003- 10-18 – 2003- 10-28
     * Kuipers (NL), ESA, DELTA Mission, 8S/ISS, 2004- 04-19 – 2004- 04-30
     * Vittori (I), ASI Eneide, Soyuz/ISS, 2005- 04-15 – 2005- 04-25
     * Reiter (D), ESA Astrolab, ISS assembly flight ULF 1.1, STS-121/ISS,
       2006- 07-06 –

Own manned launch vehicles

   In the 1980s France pressed for an independent European manned launch
   vehicle. Around 1978 it was decided to pursue a reusable spacecraft
   model and starting in November 1987 a project to create a mini-shuttle
   by the name of Hermes was introduced. The craft itself was modelled
   comparable to the first proposals of the Space Shuttle and constituted
   of a small reusable spaceship that would carry 3 to 5 astronauts and 3
   to 4 metric tons of payload for scientific experiments. With a total
   maximum weight of 21 metric tons it would have started from the
   parallelly developed Ariane 5 rocket. It was planned solely for use in
   LEO space flights. The planning and pre-development phase concluded in
   1991, however the production phase was never fully implemented because
   at that time the political landscape had changed significantly. With
   the fall of the Soviet Union ESA looked forward to a cooperation with
   Russia to build a next-generation human space vehicle. Thus the Hermes
   programme was cancelled in 1995 after about 3 billion dollars had been
   invested.

   In the 21st century ESA started new programmes in order to create an
   own manned spacecraft, most notably among its various projects and
   proposal is Hopper where a prototype built by EADS called Phoenix has
   already been tested. While projects such as Hopper are neither concrete
   nor to be realised within the next decade, a new possibility has
   emerged. Following talks with the Russian Space Agency in 2004 and June
   2005 a cooperation between ESA and the Russian Space Agency was
   announced to jointly work on the Russian designed Kliper shuttle, a
   reusable spacecraft that would be available for space travel beyond
   mere LEO (e.g. the moon or even Mars). Kliper constitutes the Russian
   counterpart to the American Crew Exploration Vehicle programme. Kliper
   may see its first launch as early as 2012. It was speculated that
   Europe could finance part of it (development costs have recently been
   announced as 16 bn rubles which amounts solely to around €500 million)
   and that it would even be possible that the lighter version of Kliper
   take off on an enhanced Soyuz rocket from both from French Guiana and
   Baikonur.

   However a €50 million participation study for Kliper, which was
   expected to be approved in December 2005, was finally not validated by
   the ESA member states. As a consequence, the participation of ESA
   remains an outstanding question. The situation is that the executive of
   ESA and its Human Spaceflight Directorate support Kliper, while the
   main contributing countries, and in particular Germany, Italy and
   France, oppose the initiation of a new human space transportation
   project that would have ESA only be a junior partner in any project.
   Jean-Jacques Dordain has hinted that a decision on ESA's involvement in
   the project could be made as soon as June, 2006. In June 2006 ESA
   memberstates granted 15 million to the Advanced Crew Transportation
   System (ACTS) study, a two year study to design a spacecraft capable of
   going beyond LEO. This project is pursued with Roskosmos and has been
   labeled a successor-project to Kliper. A decision on the actual
   implementation and construction of the ACTS spacecraft is contemplated
   for 2008.

Projects

International Space Station

   The Columbus orbital facility is a module of the International Space
   Station(ISS) that ESA developed.
   Enlarge
   The Columbus orbital facility is a module of the International Space
   Station(ISS) that ESA developed.

   With regard to the ISS ESA is not representing all its member states: 5
   of the 16 countries have opted out because of either concerns on the
   expenses of the project or lack of interest. ESA is taking part in the
   construction and operation of the ISS with contributions such as the
   Columbus orbital facility, a science laboratory module that will be
   brought into orbit after NASA's Space Shuttle goes back into service or
   the Cupola observatory module that was completed in July 2005 by Alenia
   Spazio for ESA. The current estimates for the ISS are approaching €100
   billion in total (development, construction and 10 years of maintaining
   the station) of which ESA has committed itself to pay €8 billion. About
   90% of the costs of ESA's ISS share will be contributed by Germany
   (41%), France (28%) and Italy (20%). German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter
   is currently the first long-term ISS crew member.

   As of 2005, the spacecrafts that establish the supply link to the ISS
   are the Progress and Soyuz spacecrafts as well as the Space Shuttle.
   The European Space Agency has started to construct a space freighter
   for the ISS, the ATV, an Automated Transfer vehicle with a cargo
   capacity of 8 metric tons that will be serving the ISS beginning in
   July, 2007. With the Space Shuttle reaching its retirement age in 2010,
   until NASA has a replacement for it such as COTS (the CEV is not
   expected to make its first operational manned flight before 2012) the
   ATV together with Progress, Soyuz and the Japanese transporter HTV
   (which will be ready in 2009) will be the only links between Earth and
   the ISS.

Current projects already launched

     * Artemis — Europe's most advanced telecommunication satellite.
     * Cluster-2 — a group of four probes studying the magnetosphere.
     * Double Star Mission — probe to study effects of the sun on Earth
       (in cooperation with the People's Republic of China).
     * Envisat — is the world's largest and most complex environmental
       satellite.
     * ERS-2 — is an earth-observing satellite launched in 1995. It is the
       successor to ERS-1.
     * GIOVE-A — Experimental satellite launched Dec 2005 as forerunner
       for the Galileo positioning system.
     * Hubble Space Telescope — built and operated in cooperation with
       NASA.
     * Integral — is the first space observatory that can simultaneously
       observe objects in gamma rays, X-rays and visible light.
     * Mars Express — a space probe to Mars.
     * MetOp-A — is the first polar orbiting satellite dedicated to
       operational meteorology. A satellite to study temperature and
       humidity, wind speed and direction, ozone and other trace gases on
       Earth.
     * Rosetta — a space probe launched in 2004 that will explore comet
       67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.
     * SOHO — a space-based observatory to study the sun (together with
       NASA).
     * Ulysses — built and operated in cooperation with NASA.
     * XMM-Newton — an X-ray observatory satellite.
     * Venus Express — a space probe to Venus which was launched in Nov
       2005 and arrived in orbit around Venus in April 2006.

Current projects to be launched in the near future

   The Herschel Space Obseratory is planned for launch in 2007
   Enlarge
   The Herschel Space Obseratory is planned for launch in 2007
     * ADM-Aeolus — Due for launch in 2007 will measure global wind
       profiles
     * BepiColombo space probe to Mercury (together with JAXA)
     * Chandrayaan-1 Indian space probe to the Moon that will carry
       ESA-made instruments (to be launched 2007)
     * Corot — a space telescope for detecting rocky exoplanets larger
       than Earth. A project led by CNES
     * CryoSat — a three-year radar altimetry mission to determine
       variations in the thickness of the Earth’s continental ice sheets
       and marine ice cover. In October 2005 the launcher failed and
       CyroSat was lost. ESA is evaluating the cost of rebuilding the lost
       satellite, and, if funds are available, it may be able to launch it
       in about 3 years time.
     * Don Quijote space probe planned to test deflecting an asteroid to
       be launched in 2011
     * ExoMars Mars spacecraft and rover to be launched 2011
     * Expert a flying hypersonic wind tunnel
     * Galileo positioning system a proposed satellite positioning system
     * Gaia probe space telescope to make a 3-D chart of the galaxy
     * Herschel Space Observatory a space telescope that will be launched
       together with Planck Surveyor in 2007
     * KEO — ESA is sponsoring the KEO satellite, which will carry
       messages addressed to future inhabitants of the planet Earth (a
       time capsule expected to return in the year 52006).
     * JWST planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope (together with
       NASA and the Canadian Space Agency)
     * LISA Pathfinder (aka Smart-2)
     * Planck Surveyor — The next generation Cosmic Microwave Background
       explorer, after COBE & WMAP. To be launched in 2007
     * YES2 a young engineers' satellite to demonstrate the use of tethers
       for injection into re-entry orbit of the first students' re-entry
       capsule ever

Future projects

     * Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), European-Russian
       counterpart of the Crew Exploration Vehicle
     * Aurora Programme space exploration programme for manned and
       unmanned exploration of Mars and other planets in our solar system
     * Cosmic Vision a programme of space science missions for 2015–2025
     * Darwin a L2-positioned interferometer to detect Earth-sized
       exoplanets (to be launched between 2015–2020)
     * EADS Phoenix A next generation glider-spacecraft funded by EADS and
       Germany (a study placed within the ESA next generation spacecraft
       program)
     * FLPP a study to evaluate potential future European launchers,
       reusable or expendable
     * IXV, the associated reentry demonstrator to FLPP
     * Mars Sample Return Mission Mars probe as part of the Aurora
       Programme
     * Solar Orbiter, orbiter to examine the polar regions of the Sun, the
       project is currently in an assessment phase with a prospective
       launch in 2015

Past projects

     * Cos-B — first project of ESA after foundation (in 1975).
     * Giotto mission — first deep space mission of ESA, which went to
       Comet Halley.
     * Hipparcos — a space-based astrometry mission.
     * Huygens probe — a space probe to Saturn's moon Titan.
     * ISO — Infrared Space Observatory.
     * IUE — ultraviolet astronomical space observatory.
     * SMART 1 — a lunar spaceprobe testing new propulsion technology.

Other projects and services

     * Medspiration - .

Field installations

     * Headquarters of ESA, Paris, France
     * European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany
     * Centre Spatial Guyanais, Kourou, French Guiana
     * European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk,
       The Netherlands
     * European Space Research Institute (ESRIN), Frascati, Italy
     * European Astronaut Centre (EAC), Cologne, Germany
     * European Space Astronomy Centre ( ESAC), Madrid, Spain .

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