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!
Here we see a rendered animation showing the Italian Earth observation satellite, Pathfinder Hawk, capturing its first image over the Italian peninsula.
Pathfinder Hawk is an exploratory satellite for the IRIDE programme. It was launched on 14 January 2025 and captured a high-resolution image over central Italy on 5 March 2025.
The image covered a thin strip of Italy, from the town of Fano on the Adriatic coast, over the central Apennine ridge and all the way to Rome and the coast of Lazio. It was taken by a multispectral optical instrument on board Pathfinder Hawk.
The IRIDE constellation of satellites are tailored to provide information for a wide range of environmental, emergency and security services for Italy.