{"id":477,"date":"2023-05-03T15:57:25","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T13:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/?page_id=477"},"modified":"2023-07-26T15:33:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T13:33:23","slug":"european-space-agency-esa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/litalia-e-le-ooii\/european-space-agency-esa\/","title":{"rendered":"European Space Agency (ESA)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">The European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organization created in 1975 with the aim of ensuring and developing, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation between European states in the field of space research and technology and their applications.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESA&#8217;s task is to outline the European space program and implement it.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">The Agency&#8217;s projects are designed to find out as much as possible about Earth, the surrounding space environment, the Solar System and the Universe at large, but they also aim at the development of satellite technologies and services and the promotion of European industries.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Furthermore, ESA actively collaborates with non-European space organisations.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">The European Space Agency is the gateway to space for Europe.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Its mission is to develop European space capabilities and to ensure that the investments made to conquer space continue to produce benefits and positive effects for all citizens of Europe and the world.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Since 1 March 2021, the Austrian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Space_in_Member_States\/Italy\/Josef_Aschbacher_Direttore_Generale_dell_ESA\">Josef Aschbacher<\/a> is the Director General of ESA.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">The 22 ESA Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Spain,<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Sweden, Switzerland and Hungary.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania are Associate Members.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Canada participates in some projects under a cooperation agreement.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Malta also have cooperation agreements with the Agency.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">In 2022, the Ministerial Council approved a budget of 16.9 billion euros.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Italy has pledged about 3 billion euros, equal to 18.2% of the global contribution of the Member States, ranking third after Germany and France for compulsory programmes, and first as contributor to optional programmes, focused on<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">earth observation, space exploration, space transportation.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESA guarantees that the investments made in each Member State, through industrial contracts for space programmes, are proportional to the financial contribution of that State (so-called just return).<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESA is headquartered in Paris and has other offices in different European countries, each of which has different responsibilities:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">EAC, the European Astronaut Centre, in Cologne, Germany;<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESAC, the European Space Center for Astronomy in Villanueva de la Canada, Madrid, Spain;<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany;<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESRIN, ESA&#8217;s Center for Earth Observation, in Frascati, near Rome, Italy;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESTEC, the European Space Center for Research and Technology, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands;<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ECSAT, the European Space Applications and Telecommunications Centre, in Harwell, Oxfordshire, UK;<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESEC, the European Space Center for Security and Education, in Redu, Belgium.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Furthermore, ESA has liaison offices in Belgium, the United States of America and Russia;<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">a launch base in French Guiana and ground and tracking stations in various areas of the world.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Over the last two decades, ESA has successfully developed programs delegated by the European Commission: Copernicus, the Galileo satellite navigation systems and EGNOS.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Copernicus represents a game changer and has rapidly become the largest provider of accessible and free Earth observation data.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">ESA acts as the European lead for Earth observation through the development and implementation of the \u201cSentinel Expansion\u201d missions and the next generation \u201cSentinel\u201d missions, with the aim of ensuring greater continuity of data supply.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">These missions will monitor various aspects of climate change and support the implementation of key EU policies in tackling climate change, monitoring biodiversity and supporting disaster relief.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Galileo is the European civilian satellite navigation and positioning system.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">The second generation of the system is being developed which, thanks to the use of innovative technologies, will guarantee greater precision, robustness and flexibility of the data, with possible positive effects on the design, among other things, of self-driving cars, autonomous drones<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">and the \u201cInternet of things\u201d (Internet of things \u2013 IoT).<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">EGNOS is the world&#8217;s most advanced Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) providing unprecedented positional accuracy, particularly useful in aviation, transportation and agriculture.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">The agreement with the European Commission includes further components, such as the preparation and design of the future space segment of the EU GOVSATCOM (Governmental Satellite Communications) program and the validation of a prototype for the &#8220;Quantum Key Distribution satellite&#8221;, in support of<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">new EU initiative on secure connectivity based on quantum technology.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><strong><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Italy and ESA<\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"en\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Italy has the leadership of the Martian exploration program, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.media.inaf.it\/tag\/exomars\/\">ExoMars<\/a>, which will allow Europe to land on Mars and which has restarted after the interruption of collaboration with the Russian Federation, as a result of the aggression against Ukraine.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Italy has also signed up for the launch of the Moonlight programme, for the creation of lunar communications and navigation services (LCNS) and related infrastructure.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Among Italy&#8217;s priorities is also that of space transport, with the program relating to the Vega launcher which supports both improvement activities of the current &#8220;Vega C&#8221; version and the continuation of the development of &#8220;Vega E&#8221;.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">In the Earth Observation sector, Italy plays a leading role, at European and international level, through industrial participation in the Copernicus Program and in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Applications\/Observing_the_Earth\/FutureEO\">Future EO<\/a> programme, which prepares for the next missions and develops new European observation technology tools.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">The Italian Simonetta Cheli directs the ESA Earth Observation Program and the ESA ESRIN center in Frascati.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">Anthea Comellini, 30, aerospace engineer, and Andrea Patassa, 31, captain of the Air Force, have been selected among the new members of the ESA astronaut corps.<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">They will join those already in service including Samantha Cristoforetti, Luca Parmitano and Roberto Vittori, who have already participated in numerous missions on the International Space Station (ISS).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organization created in 1975 with the aim of ensuring and developing, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation between European states in the field of space research and technology and their applications. ESA&#8217;s task is to outline the European space program and implement it. The Agency&#8217;s projects are designed [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":89,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-477","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/477\/revisions\/478"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/italiarapparigi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}