Core activities
The core activities of the Optics section at ESA are to support spacecraft projects under development with our team’s expertise and know-how in the fields of optical engineering, science, metrology (precision measurement), test, verification, calibration and in pushing the development and exploitation of new and enabling optical technologies for the next generation of missions.
We support missions and satellite developments in all domains in which ESA is active, for example Earth Observation, Space Science and Astrophysics, Telecommunications (laser inter-satellite links are an ESA enabled European technological success in which we are world leaders), Human spaceflight and Satellite navigation (the EU funded Gallieo programme).