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European Space Agency facts for kids

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European Space Agency
ESA Headquarters in Paris, France.JPG
ESA Headquarters in Paris, France
Agency overview
Abbreviation
  • ESA
  • ASE
Formed 30 May 1975; 48 years ago (1975-05-30)
Type Space agency
Headquarters Paris, Île-de-France, France
Official language English, French and German
Administrator Johann-Dietrich Wörner
Director General
Primary spaceport Guiana Space Centre
Owner
Annual budget Increase 5.72 billion
(~US$6.43 billion) (2019)

European Space Agency or ESA (ESA; French: Agence spatiale européenne, ASE) is an international organisation with 22 member countries. Its job is to explore space.

Its headquarters are in Paris, France. ESA has a staff of more than 2,000 with an annual budget of about €4.43 billion / US$5.51 billion (2015).

The member countries of ESA are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

ESA's space flight programme includes

  • human spaceflight,
  • the launch and operations of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon,
  • Earth observation.
  • running a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana,
  • designing launch vehicles.

The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Agencia Espacial Europea para niños

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