European Space Agency

100 The European Space Agency, recognized in 1975, is an inter-governmental organization dedicated to exploration of space with currently 16 member states. Its headquarters are in Paris, France. ESA has a staff of about 1,900 with a budget of 3 billion euros in 2005.

ESA's spaceport is the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, a site chosen because it is close up to the equator from which commercially essential orbits are easier to access. During the era of Ariane 4 ESA gained the location of market leader in important space launches and in current years ESA has established itself as the main competitor of NASA in space exploration.

ESA's mission
Since the Cold War ended with the fall of the Soviet Union's "iron curtain," space agencies around the world had to redeploy and amend their visions and goals. In an conference with JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, Jean-Jacques Dordain ESA's Director General outlined briefly the European Space agency's mission:

Today space activities are pursued for the advantage of citizens, and citizens are asking for a well again quality of life on earth. They want greater security and economic wealth, but they also want to pursue their dreams, to increase their knowledge, and they want younger people to be fascinated to the pursuit of science and technology.