The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
ESA will improve the identification and tracking of seafaring vessels anywhere on Earth from 2018 under a public–private partnership with LuxSpace of Luxembourg and exactEarth of Canada, signed on 15 July 2014 at the UK’s premier airshow.
The contract for Phase-B2/CD of SAT-AIS was signed by Magali Vaissiere, ESA’s Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, and Jochen Harms, Managing Director of the prime contractor, LuxSpace S.a.r.l. of Luxembourg.
The corresponding cooperation agreement between ESA and the Canadian operator exactEarth was also signed at Farnborough by Magali Vaissiere and Peter Mabson, President of exactEarth Ltd.
Also present at the signing was Bo Andersen, Director General of the Norwegian Space Centre.
In a parallel project, ESA and the Norwegian Space Centre are working on a novel AIS payload to be carried on Norway’s next satellite, Norsat-1.