In May 2008, ESA mission controllers used Mars Express to monitor and record the entry and descent of NASA's Phoenix mission to the Red Planet.

On several occasions, Mars Express has relayed pictures and data from NASA's Mars rovers operating on the planet's surface, proving the benefits of interplanetary networking between missions.

JSPOC, Vandenberg AFB, California

Closer to home, SSA highlights Europe's regular use of orbital object data supplied by the US Defense Department, specifically, the US Space Surveillance Network. The US Joint Space Operations Center (JSPOC) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, has long provided debris avoidance warnings to ESA and other European satellite operators.

By establishing its own independent surveillance capability, Europe will enhance its partnership with the USA to the benefit of both. This will enable, for example, the accuracy of predicted high-risk conjunctions to be cross-checked, potentially saving precious fuel and extending the useful life of operating satellites.

ESA is already collaborating with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in space weather monitoring and in the development of new user services. In 2010, ESA began providing ground station support for the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission to ensure the availability of the satellite's real-time data for a global user community.

Cooperation with international bodies

ESA has a long history of sharing research results, operational experience, infrastructure and expertise with international bodies in many areas, including disaster response, environmental monitoring, space debris studies, space weather effects and near-earth object detection.

Space debris research

Debris studies and results, for example, are regularly communicated at the quadrennial series of ESA-organised European Conferences on Space Debris, and at dedicated sessions of International Astronautical Congress (IAC) and Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) congresses. ESA is also an active participant in the 11-nation Inter-Agency Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), arguably the most prominent body for information exchange on space debris worldwide.

Organisations concerned with developing mitigation guidelines & standards

The IADC is internationally recognised as a space debris centre of competence. It influences space debris mitigation activities at meetings of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space - Scientific and Technical Subcommittee (United Nations UNCOPUOS - STSC) and the International Standardisation Organisation - Subcommittee for Space Systems and Operations (ISO-TC20/SC14).

Today, the global dimension of the space debris problem is internationally recognised, and space system designers, space operators and policy makers share the common view that active control of the space debris environment is necessary to sustain safe space flight activities into the future. SSA is a response to this as it includes active monitoring and surveillance of near-earth orbital regimes.

Space weather

Through data provided via the ESA Space Weather Web Server (SWENET), the Agency strongly supports the European and international space weather community.

SWNET: ESA's Space Weather European Network

This comprises national agencies, scientists, meteorologists, geologists and oceanographers worldwide, who monitor the space weather environment around Earth as a means of better understanding, forecasting and reacting to Solar influences on our planet.

The ongoing series of ESA-organised 'European Space Weather Week' conferences have been instrumental in boosting space weather understanding, which can seriously affect our infrastructure and human safety.

Environmental monitoring

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) has been established to fulfil the growing need among European policy-makers to access accurate and timely information services to better manage the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security

ESA – in accordance with the European Space Policy – is developing and managing the Space Component for the initiative.

GMES

GMES will provide information services to support policies related to environment and security at the European level, but with the broader objective of operational services on a global scale (for more information, access ESA's GMES web pages here).

Disaster response

The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters is a joint initiative by global space agency members to provide emergency response satellite data free of charge to rescue authorities responding to major natural or man-made disasters anywhere in the world.

Together with France's space agency (CNES) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), ESA was a founding member of the Charter in 2000, which today includes 10 agencies worldwide (for more information, access the Charter site here).