| Director General of the European Space Agency | |
|---|---|
| Term length | At the pleasure of the European Space Agency Council |
| Website | www |
The Director General of the European Space Agency is the highest-ranked official of the European Space Agency (ESA), a space agency formed by the collaboration of prominent European nations.
| Image | Name | Country | Term start | Term end | Term length | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Renzo Carrobio di Carrobio |  Italy | 1964 | 1972 | Eight years | [1] | |
| General Robert Aubinière |  France | 1972 | 1975 | Three years | [2] | |
| Dr. George Van Reeth |  Belgium | 1975 | 1975 | Five months | [3] | |
| Image | Name | Country | Term start | Term end | Term length | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dr. Pierre Auger | France | 1964 | 1967 | Three years | [4] |
| Sir Herman Bondi |  United Kingdom | 1967 | 1971 | Four years | [5] | |
| Dr. Alexander Hocker |  West Germany | 1971 | 1974 | Three years | [6] | |
| Dr. Roy Gibson | United Kingdom | 1974 | 1975 | One year | [7] | |
| Image | Name | Country | Term start | Term end | Term length | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Roy Gibson | United Kingdom | 1975 | 1980 | Five years | [8] | |
| Erik Quistgaard |  Denmark | 1980 | 1984 | Four years | [9] | |
| Prof. Reimar Lüst | West Germany | 1984 | 1990 | Six years | [10] | |
| Jean-Marie Luton | France | 1990 | 1997 | Seven years | [11] | |
 | Antonio Rodotà | Italy | 1997 | 2003 | Six years | [12] |
 | Jean-Jacques Dordain | France | 2003 | 1 July 2015 | Twelve years | [13] |
 | Johann-Dietrich Wörner | Germany | 1 July 2015 | February 2021 | Six years | [14] |
 | Josef Aschbacher |  Austria | 1 March 2021 | Incumbent | [15] | |
The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of uncrewed spacecraft on behalf of ESA and the launch and early orbit phases (LEOP) of ESA and third-party missions. The Centre is also responsible for a range of operations-related activities within ESA and in cooperation with ESA's industry and international partners, including ground systems engineering, software development, flight dynamics and navigation, development of mission control tools and techniques and space debris studies.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 22-member intergovernmental body devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, the ESA was founded in 1975. Its 2024 annual budget was €7.8 billion.
The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.
Esrange Space Center is a rocket range and research centre located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the aurora borealis, sounding rocket launches, and satellite tracking, among other things. Located 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by a vast wilderness, its geographic location is ideal for many of these purposes.
The Swedish National Space Agency is a Government agency in Sweden operating under the Swedish Ministry of Education and Science. SNSA operates as a key component of the Swedish space programme, which is mostly carried out through international cooperation, and has included a sequence of satellite missions, both national ones and in cooperation with other nations. Furthermore, the agency distributes government grants to research and development, initiates research and development in space and remote sensing, and acts as the Swedish contact in international cooperative efforts.
The Italian Space Agency is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entities who are active in aerospace research and technology.
The European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) is a former European space research organisation. It was first developed in order to establish a satellite launch vehicle for Europe. The three-stage rocket developed was named Europa, after the mythical Greek goddess. Overall, there were 10 launches that occurred under ELDO's funding. The organisation consisted of Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Australia was an associate member of the organisation.
The Austrian Space Agency, officially known since 2005 as the Aeronautics and Space Agency, is an organization whose purpose is to coordinate Austrian space exploration-related activities. It has been involved in both national programmes and multinational efforts coordinated via the European Space Agency (ESA).
The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a previously existing international scientific institution, CERN. The ESRO convention, the organisations founding document outlines it as an entity exclusively devoted to scientific pursuits. This was the case for most of its lifetime but in the final years before the formation of ESA, the European Space Agency, ESRO began a programme in the field of telecommunications. Consequently, ESA is not a mainly pure science focused entity but concentrates on telecommunications, earth observation and other application motivated activities. ESRO was merged with ELDO in 1975 to form the European Space Agency.
The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, although several kilometers off the village but immediately linked to the most Northern district of the nearby town Katwijk.
Reimar Lüst was a German astrophysicist. He worked in European space science from its beginning, as the scientific director of the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) from 1962 and as Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) from 1984 until 1990.
The European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA), the European space industry represented by Eurospace, and several space agencies, to develop and maintain a coherent, single set of user-friendly standards for use in all European space activities. Established in 1993 following a call by Eurospace to unify space products assurance standardization on a European level, it was officially adopted by the ESA on 23 June 1994 through the resolution ESA/C/CXIII/Res.1, to replace its own Procedures, Specifications and Standards (PSS) system. The ECSS currently has 139 active standards, forming the ECSS system. These standards cover management, engineering, product assurance, and space sustainability disciplines. The ECSS is managed by the ESA Requirement and Standard Division, based in the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The ECSS maintains connections with multiple European and international standardization organizations, to contribute to standardization and to adopt relevant standards as part of the ECSS system.
The ESA Centre for Earth Observation is a research centre belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA), located in Frascati (Rome) Italy. It is dedicated to research involving earth observation data taken from satellites, among other specialised activities. The establishment currently hosts the European Space Agency's development team for the Vega launcher.
Roy Gibson is a British former aerospace engineer. He served as Director General of ESRO, and the first Director General of ESA, serving from 1975 until 1980.
The European Space Agency (ESA) was founded in 1975 when the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) merged with the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO). The ESA Convention was signed by the ESRO and ELDO members on 30 May 1975 and by Ireland on 31 December 1975. Canada signed a Cooperation Agreement on 9 December 1978. The Convention entered into force on 30 October 1980 after the ratification procedures in the 10 ESRO/ELDO members were finalised.
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Popovkin was a Russian statesman and military figure. He was a commander of the Russian Space Forces, then First Deputy Defense Minister of Russia, then Director of the Russian Federal Space Agency. He had the military rank of General of the Army and the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.
Jean-Albert Dinkespiler (1927-2014) was a French engineer and former Chief of the European Joint Research Centre.
The Science Programme of the European Space Agency is a long-term programme of space science and space exploration missions. Managed by the agency's Directorate of Science, The programme funds the development, launch, and operation of missions led by European space agencies and institutions through generational campaigns. Horizon 2000, the programme's first campaign, facilitated the development of eight missions between 1985 and 1995 including four "cornerstone missions" – SOHO and Cluster II, XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and Herschel. Horizon 2000 Plus, the programme's second campaign, facilitated the development of Gaia, LISA Pathfinder, and BepiColombo between 1995 and 2005. The programme's current campaign since 2005, Cosmic Vision, has so far funded the development of ten missions including three flagship missions, JUICE, Athena, and LISA. The programme's upcoming fourth campaign, Voyage 2050, is currently being drafted. Collaboration with agencies and institutions outside of Europe occasionally occur in the Science Programme, including a collaboration with NASA on Cassini–Huygens and the CNSA on SMILE.
Massimo Trella was an Italian engineer, with a Master degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, who has held numerous prestigious institutional positions in Italy and abroad in the space exploration field. He was a member of ASI, director of ESTEC and Inspector General of ESA.
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