ESA title

Our Mission

The development of technology – making new things to do new things – is central to ESA's existence. The Agency spends around 8% of its budget on direct research and development, an activity mandated in the ESA Convention. It runs many preparatory programmes to do this, covering various different inventions, each leading activities based on their technical maturity or their field.

  • TDE The Technology Development Element is responsible for early development stages across all service and technology domains, taking cutting-edge ideas and testing their suitability for space applications.
  • GSTP The General Support Technology Programme is an optional programme that takes previously proven innovations through to succeeding stages of engineering, finally evolving fully-tested hardware ready for adoption by future missions.

Our Responsibility

To make sure that the right technology will be available at the right maturity at the right time for future missions

Shaping the Future

Latest

Falcon 9 launch on 6 May 2024
Enabling & Support

GOMX-5 Successfully Launched

02/10/2026 182 views 2 likes
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Enabling & Support

Simpler ESA R&D a highlight at 2026 Industry Space Days

30/09/2026 135 views 0 likes
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CubeSat for safer seas and cleaner orbits ready to launch
Enabling & Support

GOMX-5 integration is step towards safer seas and cleaner o…

10/09/2026 600 views 11 likes
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Enabling & Support

New satellite control reaches commercialisation

09/09/2026 461 views 12 likes
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Enabling & Support

Deep space pioneer Henon signs to launch with Plato

16/07/2026 999 views 6 likes
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Enabling & Support

ESA’s first Chemical Propulsion Lab now operational

08/07/2026 834 views 2 likes
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Loft's Longbow satellite
Enabling & Support

GSTP co-funds development for new Loft Orbital satellite pl…

09/09/2025 1746 views 5 likes
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NASA's Psyche mission
Enabling & Support

Europe's first deep-space optical communication link

10/07/2025 16640 views 93 likes
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Enabling & Support

50 years of innovation: TDE and Zero Debris

16/06/2025 284 views 1 likes
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Enabling & Support

MIRROR robot reflects future of in-orbit assembly

24/09/2026 235 views 4 likes
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Enabling & Support

Resources for Industry

17/09/2026 454 views 7 likes
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Moon surface scenario
Enabling & Support

Europe assesses Pu-238 supply chain for deep space

03/06/2026 1755 views 8 likes
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Enabling & Support

Inside ESA’s testing of the m-NLP instrument

02/06/2026 630 views 5 likes
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Cyber-resilience
Enabling & Support

Strengthening Space Cybersecurity through ESA’s GSTP

06/05/2026 1375 views 6 likes
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More items

  • Enabling & Support

    Proba-3’s new view on space weather

    03/07/2024 3807 views 32 likes
    Open item
  • Enabling & Support

    GSTP Celebrates 30 Years of Achievements

    29/09/2023 1284 views 4 likes
    Open item
  • Enabling & Support

    Show Me Your Wings: Successful In-flight Demonstration of the ADEO Braking Sail

    27/01/2023 5436 views 16 likes
    Open item
    ADEO Artist Impression