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image by Zoltan Horvath, 17 February 2014
"The European Space Agency (ESA) (French: Agence spatiale européenne - ASE; German: Europäische
Weltraumorganisation) is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to
the exploration of space, with 20 member states. Established in 1975
and headquartered in Paris, France. ESA's space flight programme
includes human spaceflight, mainly through the participation in the
International Space Station programme, the launch and operations of unmanned exploration
missions to other planets and the Moon, Earth observation, science,
telecommunication as well as maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana
Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana, and designing launch vehicles.
After World War II, many European scientists left Western Europe in
order to work in the United States. Although the 1950s boom made it
possible for Western European countries to invest in research and
specifically in space related activities, Western European scientists
realised solely national projects would not be able to compete with
the two main superpowers. In 1958, only months after the Sputnik
shock, Edoardo Amaldi and Pierre Auger, two prominent members of the
Western European scientific community at that time, met to discuss the
foundation of a common Western European space agency. The meeting was
attended by scientific representatives from eight countries, including
Harrie Massey (UK).
The Western European nations decided to have two different agencies,
one concerned with developing a launch system ELDO (European Launch
Development Organization) and the precursor of the European Space
Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation). The latter was
established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962.
From 1968 to 1972, ESRO carried out numerous successful projects.
Seven research satellites were brought into orbit, all by US launch
systems. Ariane did not exist at that time.
ESA in its current form was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975,
when ESRO was merged with ELDO. ESA has 10 founding member states:
Belgium, Denmark, France,
Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the
United Kingdom.
These signed the ESA Convention
in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, when
the convention came into force. During this interval the agency
functioned in a de facto fashion. The other members which later joined
are: Austria, Czech Republic,
Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Poland, Portugal, Romania.
Currently the only associated member of ESA is Canada and it is also the only
non-European country to do so (Australia was part of the ELDO program but
withdrew when it was over). Previously associated members were Austria,
Norway and Finland, all of which later joined ESA as
full members.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency
After the decision of the ESA Council of 21/22 March 2001, the
procedure for accession of the European states was ammended. The
current applicants are:
Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary,
Israel, Latvia, Lithuania,
Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Turkey and Ukraine.
The political perspective of the European Union (EU) is to make ESA an
agency of the EU by 2014, although this date may not be met. The
EU is
already the largest single donor to ESA's budget and non-ESA
EU states
are observers at ESA.
The only EU member states that have not signed an ESA Cooperation
Agreement are Bulgaria and Croatia.
Bulgaria however, has
announced its intention to participate in the activities of ESA and is
in the process of negotiations
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_the_European_Space_Agency
For additional information go to: ESA (official website)
Esteban Rivera, 17 February 2014
The new flag shows the new
logo on a horizontal blue
flag (the logo in the flag has inverted colors, that is: the letters
in white) as seen here:
http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2012/11/esa_flag/12165344-1-eng-GB/ESA_Flag.jpg
and http://bethbeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/esaflag1.jpg
Sources: http://www.esa.int/ESA/Connect_with_us/Get_connected
and
http://bethbeck.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/esa-space-luv-italian-style/
Esteban Rivera, 17 February 2014
image by Victor Lomantsov, 24 July 2005