ESA

Space agencyFounded 1975Paris, France esa.int

The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states, founded in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, that pools Europe's civil space budget. ESA develops launch vehicles (the Ariane and Vega families), science missions (Gaia, Euclid, JUICE), Earth-observation satellites and human-spaceflight contributions such as the Columbus module and the European Service Module for NASA's Orion. Member states fund programmes roughly in proportion to their economies, and ESA's 'geographical return' rule directs industrial contracts back to each country accordingly. It collaborates closely with NASA, JAXA and Roscosmos.