Welcome to

ESA Vision

Europe must have the ambition to have a space programme and a space agency that is world-class and is leading. On 1 March 2021, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher took office and presented Agenda 2025. Working with the ESA Member States, ESA defined the Agenda, which for the next four years, puts ESA and puts space on track in order to be among the top space agencies in the world.
CM2022

ESA sets out bold ambitions for space

ESA has put forward its ambitious plans for the next three years and beyond to increase European autonomy, leadership and responsibility in space.
Josef Aschbacher
ESA Director General

Europe and Space

Jobs

230 000

Upstream revenues (35% of global market)

€9 Billion

Downstream revenues (25% of global market)

€70 Billion

22 ESA Member States
27 EU Member States
16% of global space public funding

Agenda 2025 defines five immediate priorities as well as the vision for the next four years. The first priority is to strengthen ESA–EU relations. ESA will closely work with the European Commission to develop a joint ambition for space in Europe and to implement space programmes for European citizens. The European Commission provides important political leadership to space activities including initiating and funding flagships addressing societal needs such as Copernicus and Galileo, which work extremely well.

Secondly, we have huge opportunities in commercialisation. In 2040, the market of space, or the space economy is about US $1 trillion, according to external estimates. Can Europe afford not to participate? Of course we cannot. European space companies should be among the biggest and best space companies, strongly contributing to a greener and more digital economic recovery.

Third, we have to make sure that space is serving European security for citizens. This is fundamental. In meteorology, we have weather forecasts that are important for the security of people, or for every single citizen; the Galileo signals, again very important for security. We have to see what we can do in security together with our Member States.

Fourth, in space transportation as well as in space exploration we have programmatic challenges ahead of us which we need to address. We need to progress in both fields and develop crucial technology and capabilities to make sure Europe does not lose its edge in space.

And we have to make ESA ready to do all that. That means we have to organise our processes internally with our Member States to make sure that we are dynamic, responsive and ready for the challenges of the future to be among the top space agencies in the world in the next decade.

But we must act now and accelerate the use of space in Europe. ESA proposes three accelerators to unite European space actors to collectively put their strengths and excellence to work to solve crises on Earth caused by natural or human-made disasters: “Rapid, resilient crisis response”, “Space for a green future” and “Protection of space assets” will make the difference when dealing with climate change and geopolitical instabilities.

Programme challenges

Commercial space activities are growing quickly. New Space approaches have led to smaller, narrowly focused satellites and reduced launch costs. To benefit from the growing space economy in Europe, ESA has committed itself be more forceful, more dynamic and faster to interact with start-ups and companies to help them to succeed.
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26.04.2024

Start of the first Ariane 6 launch campaign

The central core and boosters of the first Ariane 6 are now on the launch pad at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

23.06.2023

Full ignition for ESA’s reusable rocket engine

Work to develop a reusable engine for European rockets is progressing, with full ignition of an early prototype of Prometheus. These images were taken on 22 June 2023 at ArianeGroup’s test facility in Vernon, France during a 12-second burn.