The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975,is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to exploration of space with currently 17 member states. Its headquarters are in Paris, France. ESA has a staff (excluding sub-contractors and national space agencies) of about 1900 with a budget of €3 billion in 2005.
ESA's spaceport is the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, a site chosen because it is close to the equator from which commercially important orbits are easier to access. During the era of Ariane 4 ESA gained the position of market leader in commercial space launches and in recent years ESA has established itself as the major competitor of NASA in space exploration.
ESA science missions are based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands, Earth Observation missions at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy, ESA Mission Control (ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany, and the European Astronauts Centre (EAC), that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in Cologne, Germany. wiley x san fransisco shuttletours cheap spanish holiday
