The European Space Agency (ESA) (French: l'Agence spatiale européenne - ASE; German: Europäische Weltraumorganisation), often stylized as esa, established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 20 member states. Headquartered in Paris, ESA has a staff of more than 2,000 with an annual budget of about €4.02 billion / US$5.38 billion (2012).
ESA's space flight program includes human spaceflight, mainly through the participation in the International Space Station program, the launch and operations of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon, Earth observation, science, telecommunication as well as maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana, and 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.
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, the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in Cologne, Germany, and the European Space Astronomy Centre is located in Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain.
Read more about European Space Agency: Mission Statement
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