List of projects of the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

Entire list of projects of the European Space Agency:

Current projects already launched

The ESA control room in Darmstadt, Germany

• Artemis — Europe's most advanced telecommunication satellite.
• Cluster II — a group of four probes studying the magnetosphere.
• COROT — a space telescope for detecting rocky exoplanets larger than Earth. Launched Dec 2006. A project led by the French space agency CNES.
• CryoSat-2 — a three-year radar altimetry mission launched on 8 April 2010 to determine variations in the thickness of the Earth’s continental ice sheets and marine ice cover; built to replace Cryosat after launch failure.
• 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.
• GIOVE-B — the second Galileo in-orbit validation satellite launched on April 2008.
• GOCE — a mission designed to measure the Earth's gravity field, launched on March 2009.
• 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.
• Planck — The next generation Cosmic Microwave Background explorer, after COBE & WMAP. launched in May 2009.
• Proba-1 — is the technology demonstration mini-satellite launched in 2001. It is the first satellite in the PROBA series
• Proba-2 — the second satellite in the PROBA series, launched in 2009 together with SMOS.
• 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).
• SMOS — the second Earth Explorer mission launched on November 2009 designed to measure Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity.
• Venus Express — a space probe to Venus which was launched in Nov 2005 and arrived in orbit around Venus in April 2006.
• XMM-Newton — an X-ray observatory satellite which participates in the Cosmic Evolution Survey.

Current projects to be launched in the near future

• ADM-Aeolus — Due for launch in 2013 will measure global wind profiles.
• BepiColombo — space probe to Mercury (together with JAXA).
• Don Quijote — space probe planned to test deflecting an asteroid, launch in 2013 or 2015
• ExoMars — Mars spacecraft and rover to be launched 2016.
• EXPERT — a flying hypersonic wind tunnel.
• Galileo positioning system — a proposed satellite positioning system.
• Gaia — cataloguing and astrometry of stars in our galaxy.
• James Webb Space Telescope — planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope (together with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency).
• LISA Pathfinder — aka Smart-2, technology demonstrator for the LISA mission.
• Proba-V — a new satellite in the PROBA series, to be launched in April 2013. Main objective is to observe the ground vegetation on a global scale
• Swarm — a satellite mission to measure Earth's magnetic field.
• Sentinel-1 — the first component of the GMES Space Segment, carrying a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in C-Band, that will provide all-weather, day and night radar imaging for land and ocean services.

Future projects

• Aurora Programme — a 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.
• Cheops- a joint project between ESA and Switzerland to study the structure of exoplantes.
• EarthCARE - collaboration with JAXA to improve understanding of the cloud, radiative and aerosol processes that affect the Earth's climate
• Euclid — a planned space telescope for mapping the distribution of dark matter and characterizing properties of dark energy.
• FLPP — a study to evaluate potential future European launchers, reusable or expendable.
• IXV — the associated reentry demonstrator to FLPP.
• Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer — spacecraft to visit the Jovian system, focused in particular on studying three of Jupiter's moons; Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
• LISA — a mission to detect and study gravitational waves (together with NASA).
• Mars Sample Return Mission — a Mars probe as part of the Aurora Programme.
• PLATO — a planned space telescope for detecting transiting exoplanets.
• Proba-3 — a mission involving 2 proba-like satellites to demonstrate formation flying.
• Solar Orbiter — an 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

• ARD — a testbed for reentry technologies launched in 1998.
• ESA-made instruments on Chandrayaan-1 — Indian space probe to the Moon launched on October 2008, functional until August 2009.
• Cos-B — First project of ESA after foundation (in 1975).
• Double Star Mission — probe to study effects of the sun on Earth (in cooperation with the People's Republic of China).
• ERS-1 — First Earth-observing satellite of ESA.
• EXOSAT — ESA's first X-ray observatory.
• Giotto mission — First deep space mission of ESA, which went to Comet Halley.
• Herschel Space Observatory — a space telescope observing in the far-infrared.
• 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 in cooperation with NASA.
• SMART 1 — A lunar spaceprobe testing new propulsion technology.
• Ulysses — A probe launched in 1990 to study the Sun's north and south poles.
• 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.

Cancelled projects

• Eddington mission
• Hermes
• Hopper

External links

• Official website