List of European Space Agency programmes and missions

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View from the Operations Manager desk across the control room at ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany. Views in the Main Control Room (12052189474).jpg
View from the Operations Manager desk across the control room at ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany.
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The European Space Agency (ESA) operates a number of space missions, both individually and in collaborations with other space agencies such as U.S. NASA, Japanese JAXA, Chinese CNSA, as well as space agencies of ESA member states (eg. French CNES, Italian ASI, German DLR, Polish POLSA).

Contents

A staple of the ESA's Science Doctrine is the Cosmic Vision Programme, a series of space science missions chosen by ESA to launch through competitions, similar to NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers programmes. It follows the Horizon 2000 and Horizon 2000+ programmes which launched notable missions such as Huygens (Titan lander), Rosetta (comet orbiter and lander), and Gaia (astrometry telescope). These missions are divided into two categories: "Sun and Solar System", space probes studying the Solar System (eg. Solar Orbiter studying the Sun and JUICE currently on its way to Jupiter) and "Astrophysics", space telescopes contributing to interstellar astronomy (eg. CHEOPS characterising exoplanets and Euclid focused on dark matter and dark energy).

A similarly operated programme focused on Earth observation, known as the FutureEO Programme (former Living Planet Programme), has launched various "Earth Explorer" satellites, which serve many aspects of Geoscience, often related to climate change. These include eg. GOCE and Swarm studying Earth's gravitational and magnetic fields, CryoSat-2 studying Earth's polar ice caps, and EarthCARE characterising clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere. The Earth Explorer missions will be complemented by a series of smaller "Scout" satellites.

A number of Solar System, Astrophysics, and Earth observation missions by ESA have operated outside of a canonical programme, such as Giotto , Ulysses , Mars Express , Hipparcos , or Envisat . ESA also takes part in human spaceflight missions of other space agencies and commercial partners, eg. by providing European astronauts and major hardware components to the Space Shuttle, Mir , ISS, and Artemis programmes and supporting the Gaganyyan programme. ESA works with European space industry on development of launch vehicles and reentry systems like the Ariane and Vega rockets and the Space Rider spaceplane. Together with other European institutions, ESA develops and operates various satellite constellations for Earth observation, meteorology, communication, and navigation, eg. Meteosat , Sentinel , Galileo , or EDRS. ESA's portfolio also includes public-private partnerships with European satellite operators such as Eutelsat and Inmarsat.

Horizon 2000 Programme

Illustration of Rosetta and Philae at the comet Rosetta and Philae at comet (11206660686).jpg
Illustration of Rosetta and Philae at the comet
Artist's impression of Huygens probe on the surface of Titan Huygens on the Ground.jpg
Artist's impression of Huygens probe on the surface of Titan
Illustration of BepiColombo BepiColombo spacecraft model.png
Illustration of BepiColombo

Cornerstone missions

Medium-sized missions

Horizon 2000+

Cosmic Vision Programme

Artist's impression of the Solar Orbiter orbiting the Sun Solar Orbiter ESA20813950.jpg
Artist's impression of the Solar Orbiter orbiting the Sun
Illustration of the Juice spacecraft at Jupiter Juice launch kit cover close-up.png
Illustration of the Juice spacecraft at Jupiter
Artist's impression of Comet Interceptor Comet Interceptor spacecraft.jpg
Artist's impression of Comet Interceptor
Artist's impression of PLATO Artist's impression of Plato.jpg
Artist's impression of PLATO
Artist's conception of LISA spacecraft LISA-waves.jpg
Artist's conception of LISA spacecraft

S-class missions

M-class missions

L-class missions

F-class missions

FutureEO Programme (former Living Planet Programme)

Artist's impression of the Biomass satellite Vue d'artiste du projet de satellite Biomass 2022 Esa Copernicus.jpg
Artist’s impression of the Biomass satellite

Core missions

Opportunity missions

Human spaceflight

Shuttle Columbia during STS-9 with Spacelab Module LM1 and tunnel in its cargo bay STS-9 Spacelab 1.jpg
Shuttle Columbia during STS-9 with Spacelab Module LM1 and tunnel in its cargo bay
Columbus (ISS module) Columbus module - cropped.jpg
Columbus (ISS module)
ESA's "Johannes Kepler" Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 View of ATV-2 - cropped and rotated.jpg
ESA's "Johannes Kepler" Automated Transfer Vehicle-2
German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst on EVA as part of Expedition 41 ISS-41 EVA-1 (g) Alexander Gerst.jpg
German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst on EVA as part of Expedition 41

Earth-based activities

Launch, reentry, and in-space transport

The Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator at ESTEC ARD (Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator).jpg
The Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator at ESTEC
Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle Demonstrateur corps portant IXV apres son vol de fevrier 2015 DSC 0037.jpg
Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle
Ariane 6 Ariane 6 on pad.jpg
Ariane 6

Solar system exploration

Artist's impression of Ulysses Parts of Ulysses.jpg
Artist's impression of Ulysses
Artist's impression of SMART-1 Artist's impression of the SMART-1 mission ESA199399.jpg
Artist's impression of SMART-1
Artist's impression of the Mars Express spacecraft, the first ESA mission to orbit another planet. Mars Express over Tharsis volcanoes.jpg
Artist's impression of the Mars Express spacecraft, the first ESA mission to orbit another planet.
ExoMars prototype rover, 2009 ExoMars prototype rover.jpg
ExoMars prototype rover, 2009
Artist's impression of Hera in orbit around the asteroid Didymos Hera in orbit.jpg
Artist's impression of Hera in orbit around the asteroid Didymos

Astronomy and astrophysics

Artwork depicting COS-B, the first ESA-operated science mission, launched in August 1975. Cos-B.jpg
Artwork depicting COS-B, the first ESA-operated science mission, launched in August 1975.
Hubble Space Telescope HST-SM4.jpeg
Hubble Space Telescope
Primary mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope undergoing evaluation. NASA Completes Webb Telescope Center of Curvature Pre-test (30645694521).jpg
Primary mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope undergoing evaluation.

Meteorology and Earth observation

Artist's impression of Meteosat Second Generation Meteosat Geostasjonaer satellitt.jpg
Artist's impression of Meteosat Second Generation
Instruments carried by Envisat. Envisat instruments ESA194759.jpg
Instruments carried by Envisat.
Artist's rendering of Meteosat Third Generation Meteosat Third Generation weather satellites ESA24390147.jpeg
Artist's rendering of Meteosat Third Generation

Communication and navigation

Artist's impression of Orbital Test Satellite-2 Orbital Test Satellite - artist's impression.jpg
Artist's impression of Orbital Test Satellite-2
Illustrartion of EDRS Datenrelaissystem-edrs 18284.jpg
Illustrartion of EDRS
Model of a Galileo satellite Galileo satellite model.jpg
Model of a Galileo satellite

Other missions

ESA's Eureca during deployment from Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992 Eureca ESA382424.jpg
ESA's Eureca during deployment from Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992

See also

References

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