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European Space Agency
Agence spatiale européenne
Europäische Weltraumorganisation
Agencia Espacial Europea
Agenzia Spaziale Europea |
| Owner | 18 European statesCzech Republic
France
Germany
Italy
United Kingdom
Belgium
Spain
Switzerland
Netherlands
Sweden
Austria
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Ireland
Greece
Portugal
Luxembourg |
|---|
| Established | 1975 |
|---|
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
|---|
| Primary spaceport | Guiana Space Centre |
|---|
| Administrator | Jean-Jacques Dordain |
|---|
| Budget | €3.028 bn / $3.838 bn(2008) |
|---|
| Official language(s) | None, de facto English, French and German |
|---|
| Website | www.esa.int |
|---|
The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states. Headquartered in Paris, ESA has a staff of close to 2,000 with an annual budget of about €2.9 billion in 2007.
ESA's main spaceport is the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, a site made available by France. It is close to the equator, hence commercially important orbits are easier to access. ESA became the market leader in commercial space launches in the 1990s. In recent years, ESA has also established itself as a major player in space exploration.
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, and the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in Cologne, Germany.
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