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 topicBinar-2, 3, and 4 Qualification Model with solar panels and antenna deployed. The solar panels use shape memory alloy to fully extended once exposed to the Sun.
On 10 November 2024, the final of three Australian CubeSats reentered the atmosphere. Like many other small satellite missions, they benefitted from the SMILE lab for tracking and monitoring, located at ESOC.
Since August 2024, Binar-2, 3 and 4, three CubeSats developed by the Binar team from Curtin University, based at Perth, in Western Australia, have been circling the Earth at an altitude of 400 km above sea-level. Deployed from the International Space Station on 29 August, the satellites used a network of antennas scattered around the globe to track them and downlink their data. The only antenna in the Northern hemisphere used for uplink was ESA-owned and is called SMILE.
Located at ESOC, SMILE - or Special Mission Infrastructure Lab Environment - is an open-to-use and flexible small satellite mission control and operation methods validation environment. Since 2019, it is accessible by any ESA member state business, university or organisation and other entities via dedicated support agreements. The facility comprises one laboratory and four antennas available in many different configurations - S-Band, X-Band, and UHF; up- and downlink; commercial and amateur radio.