The agency is also working with NASA to manufacture the Orion spacecraft service module that flies on the Space Launch System.

The ESA had ten founding member states: Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B, a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emissions in the universe, which was first worked on by ESRO.

The ESA collaborated with NASA on the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the world's first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated successfully for 18 years.

Hipparcos, a star-mapping mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses and the Hubble Space Telescope were all jointly carried out with NASA.

Later scientific missions in cooperation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, to which the ESA contributed by building the Titan landing module Huygens.

[13][14] The beginning of the new millennium saw the ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, the CSA and Roscosmos, one of the major participants in scientific space research.

There is a framework agreement between ESA and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation and partnership in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and cooperation is already underway in two different areas of launcher activity that will bring benefits to both partners.Notable ESA programmes include SMART-1,[16] a probe testing cutting-edge space propulsion technology, the Mars Express and Venus Express missions,[17][18] as well as the development of the Ariane 5 rocket and its role in the ISS partnership.

The ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot, launched on 27 December 2006,[19] a milestone in the search for exoplanets.

On 21 January 2019, ArianeGroup and Arianespace announced a one-year contract with the ESA to study and prepare for a mission to mine the Moon for lunar regolith.

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 attracted to the pursuit of science and technology.

I think that space can do all of this: it can produce a higher quality of life, better security, more economic wealth, and also fulfill our citizens' dreams and thirst for knowledge, and attract the young generation.

Depending on their individual choices the countries can contribute to the following programmes, becoming 'Participating States', listed according to:[32] As of 2023, Many other facilities are operated by national space agencies in close collaboration with the ESA.

Ars Technica's 2023 report, which contained testimonies of 18 people, suggested that there is a widespread harassment between management and its employees, especially with its contractors.

[98] Rocket launches are carried out by Arianespace, which has 23 shareholders representing the industry that manufactures the Ariane 5 as well as CNES, at the ESA's Guiana Space Centre.

Because many communication satellites have equatorial orbits, launches from French Guiana are able to take larger payloads into space than from spaceports at higher latitudes.

[105] Historically, the Ariane family rockets have been funded primarily "with money contributed by ESA governments seeking to participate in the program rather than through competitive industry bids.

This [has meant that] governments commit multiyear funding to the development with the expectation of a roughly 90% return on investment in the form of industrial workshare."

After two-stage psychological tests and medical evaluation in early 2009, as well as formal interviews, six new members of the European Astronaut Corps were selected – five men and one woman.

The craft was comparable to early proposals for the Space Shuttle and consisted of a small reusable spaceship that would carry 3 to 5 astronauts and 3 to 4 metric tons of payload for scientific experiments.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, the ESA looked forward to co-operation with Russia to build a next-generation space vehicle.

In the 21st century, the ESA started new programmes in order to create its own crew vehicles, most notable among its various projects and proposals is Hopper, whose prototype by EADS, called Phoenix, has already been tested.

While projects such as Hopper are neither concrete nor to be realised within the next decade, other possibilities for human spaceflight in co-operation with the Russian Space Agency have emerged.

The ESA may also seek to work with NASA on Orion's launch system as well in order to secure a seat on the spacecraft for its own astronauts.

[citation needed] NASA has supported the ESA's MarcoPolo-R mission which landed on asteroid Bennu in October 2020 and is scheduled to return a sample to Earth for further analysis in 2023.

[125] The ESA entered into a major joint venture with Russia in the form of the CSTS, the preparation of French Guiana spaceport for launches of Soyuz-2 rockets and other projects.

Portugal, Luxembourg, Greece, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Estonia and Hungary joined ESA after the agreement had been signed.

This manoeuvre, considered a major technical feat, involved using automated systems to allow the ATV to track the ISS, moving at 27,000 km/h, and attach itself with an accuracy of 2 cm.

[130] As of 2020, the spacecraft establishing supply links to the ISS are the Russian Progress and Soyuz, Japanese Kounotori (HTV), and the United States vehicles Cargo Dragon 2 and Cygnus stemmed from the Commercial Resupply Services program.

The ESA is an independent space agency and not under the jurisdiction of the European Union, although they have common goals, share funding, and work together often.