European Space Agency

European Space Agency (ESA), organization established in July 1973 from a merger of the European Space Research Organization and the European Launcher Development Organization; it began operations in May 1975. The purpose of ESA is to develop space research and technology and to foster European cooperation in these fields; its 15 members are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Canada and Hungary can participate in certain ESA programmes. ESA's headquarters is in Paris, and major facilities exist in several nations, including a launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, on the Atlantic coast of South America.

ESA developed Spacelab, which first flew in 1983 on the ninth mission of the Space Shuttle and had its last flight in 1998. In 1980 ESA set up Arianespace, a commercial space launch company, to produce, operate, and market the Ariane series of launchers. In 1985 ESA launched the Giotto space probe to Halley's Comet, and it was involved in the development of the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990. Another notable initiative was the founding, in 1989, of the European Centre for Space Law. Other major spacecraft include the solar probes Ulysses and SOHO, the Huygens probe (aboard NASA’s Cassini) to Saturn’s largest satellite Titan, the XMM-Newton X-Ray Observatory, the Integral gamma-ray observatory, and Mars Express, which early in 2004 confirmed the presence of water in some form on Mars. ESA is one of the participants in the International Space Station (ISS), the first parts of which were sent into orbit in late 1998. Columbus, ESA’s main contribution, is a scientific laboratory that will be permanently attached to the ISS for carrying out experiments in weightlessness. In addition, starting in 2008, ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will ferry up supplies to the ISS at yearly intervals. Other projects include the Rosetta comet-rendezvous mission (launched 2004), Venus Express (launched 2005), the Herschel far-infrared and submillimetre wavelength observatory (due for launch in 2008), and the Planck mission to study the cosmic background radiation (due for launch on the same rocket as Herschel). Further development is also planned for telecommunications satellites (see Telecommunications), weather forecasting using the widely accepted Meteosat system, and the provision of a satellite navigation system. A long-term plan for solar system exploration called Aurora has also been announced. See Space Exploration.