Envisat launch:
Win a chance to send your drawing into space!

Are you aged between 8 and 12 and a national of an ESA Member State or Canada? If so you could win the chance to travel to French Guiana in South America to see your drawing launch ESA's biggest Earth observation satellite, Envisat, into space.

Why does ESA want a flag of the Earth on the Envisat launcher?
Just as each country has its own flag, we want you to draw, paint or make a collage of a picture of a flag to represent the Earth. As you can see from the picture, your drawing will be placed underneath the Envisat logo in landscape format.

Prize winning entries will be chosen on the basis of originality and simplicity, remember, it must be visible from a distance. Your picture should be in colour and accompanied by a short text of not more than 300 words telling us what your flag represents.

What can I win?

First: 16 flag designs will be selected, one from each of the 15 ESA Member States and one from Canada. The 16 winners, together with one parent for each winner, will be invited to the International Air Show at Le Bourget in Paris in June, where the name of the lucky overall winner will be announced. That's not all, each of the winners will also receive a computer plus colour printer, together with exciting new software about space.
Then: the best flag design from the 16 winning entries will be chosen, blown up to approximately 2 metres by 2 metres and put on the huge Ariane 5 launcher that is going to propel the new Envisat satellite into orbit.
Plus, if you are chosen as the overall winner you will be invited, together with your parents, to be ESA’s guests for three days in French Guiana, South America in October 2001. From ESA’s launch base in Kourou you will be able to watch the Envisat launch. Just think, you could see your flag being sent into space!

How do I enter?

Your entry can be sent either by post or email. If by post, it should be on a piece of paper sized
30 cm x 21 cm and accompanied by a short description on a separate piece of paper.

Remember to put your name, age and address both on the back of the drawing and on the description, so that we can contact you if your entry is selected.

Postal entries should be sent to:

Earth Flag Competition
ESA/ESRIN
Via Galileo Galilei
Frascati (RM) 00044
Italy

or

You can scan your picture and send it by email in a jpg, gif or bmp format to:
compcom@esa.int
Again, remember to send the short description and to include your age, name and address.

All entries should be received by 30 April 2001 so that the winners can be notified by the end of May 2001. We are sorry that we cannot return your designs to you and that the relatives of ESA staff members can not take part in this competition.

Good luck and remember the deadline:
30 April 2001!