{"id":2347,"date":"2017-08-09T14:55:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T12:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/a3space.org\/?page_id=2347"},"modified":"2017-09-11T19:46:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T17:46:42","slug":"agencies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/staging.a3space.org\/?page_id=2347","title":{"rendered":"Agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

National and International Aerospace Programs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Europe<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Although some countries in Europe have a highly developed scientific and technological sector for their historic political and economic rivalries none of them could have developed an aerospace sector that would play a significant role on the\u00a0global scale. \u00a0Creation of \u00a0community of European countries has inevitably followed by the unification of the aerospace sector, profiled in Airbus and \u00a0the European Space Agency (ESA), to be important factor globally.<\/p>\n

ESA (European Space Agency)<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

http:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/European_Space_Agency<\/a><\/p>\n

Membership
\n<\/strong>After the decision of the ESA Council of 21\/22 March 2001, the procedure for accession of the\u00a0European states\u00a0was detailed as described the document titled “The Plan for European Co-operating States (PECS)”. Nations that want to become a full member of ESA do so in 3 stages. First a Cooperation Agreement is signed between the country and ESA. In this stage, the country has very limited financial responsibilities. If a country wants to co-operate more fully with ESA, it signs a European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement. The ECS Agreement makes companies based in the country eligible for participation in ESA procurements. The country can also participate in all ESA programmes, except for the Basic Technology Research Programme. While the financial contribution of the country concerned increases, it is still much lower than that of a full member state. The agreement is normally followed by a Plan For European Cooperating State (or PECS Charter). This is a 5-year programme of basic research and development activities aimed at improving the nation’s space industry capacity. At the end of the 5-year period, the country can either begin negotiations to become a full member state or an associated state or sign a new PECS Charter. \u00a0Many countries, most of which joined the EU in both 2004 and 2007, have started to co-operate with ESA on various levels.<\/p>\n

Headquarters<\/strong><\/a>
\nESA has its headquarters in Paris. The Director General and cabinet have their offices here, as do some of the ESA Programme Directors. The decisions that shape ESA\u2019s present and future activities are made here.<\/p>\n

ESTEC<\/strong><\/a>
\nThe European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is the largest ESA establishment, a test centre and hub for European space activities, responsible for the technical preparation and management of ESA space projects and providing technical support to ESA\u2019s satellite, space exploration and human spaceflight activities.<\/p>\n

ESOC<\/strong><\/a>
\nThe European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, ensures the smooth working of spacecraft in orbit. Its control rooms, linked to ground stations all over the world, track and control satellites, and carry out payload operations and routine systems monitoring.<\/p>\n

ESRIN<\/strong><\/a>
\nESA\u2019s centre for Earth observation in Frascati, near Rome, manages the ground segment for ESA and third-party Earth observation satellites, maintaining the largest archive of environmental data in Europe and coordinating over 20 ground stations and ground segment facilities in Europe. It also hosts the project team managing the Vega small-launcher program.<\/p>\n

EAC<\/strong><\/a>
\nThe European Astronaut Centre located in Cologne, Germany, is a training facility and home base for all European astronauts. It is a centre of excellence for astronaut training and medical support.<\/p>\n

ESAC<\/strong><\/a>
\nThe European Space Astronomy Centre, at Villanueva de la Ca\u00f1ada, near Madrid in Spain, hosts the scientific operations centres for ESA’s astronomy and planetary missions, along with their scientific archives. It provides services to astronomical research projects worldwide.<\/p>\n

Guiana Space Centre (CSG)<\/strong><\/a>
\nKourou, in French Guiana, is Europe\u2019s gateway to space. Covering over 96 000 hectares, CSG is ideally sited for launching satellites, in particular because it is close to the equator. ESA is the owner of the launch and launcher production facilities and finances a significant part of the fixed costs of the launch base.<\/p>\n

Redu Centre<\/strong><\/a>
\nESA’s Redu Centre in Belgium is responsible for controlling and testing a range of satellites as part of ESA\u2019s ground station network. It is also home to the Space Weather Data Centre (as part of the ESA’s Space Situational Awareness Preparatory Programme).<\/p>\n

ECSAT<\/strong><\/a>
\nThe European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications, in Harwell, Oxfordshire, UK, is supporting activities related to telecommunications, integrated applications, climate change, technology and science.<\/p>\n

National space organisations of \u00a0EU member states<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n