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ESA at 50: looking back and launching forward
The European Space Agency marked its 50th anniversary in May, kicking off a landmark year of mission launches and strategic planning. With the ESA Ministerial Council set to meet in November, Director General Josef Aschbacher reflected on five decades of progress and outlined the agency's future in exploration, climate science, navigation, and global collaboration.
Since its founding in 1975, ESA has contributed to a broad range of scientific and technological areas. One of its most notable moments came in 2014 with the Rosetta mission, when the Philae lander became the first human-made object to land on a comet. The event drew global attention and is considered a major milestone in robotic space exploration.
Copernicus and Galileo
ESA has also developed long-running programmes such as Copernicus and Galileo, which continue to serve scientific, environmental, and practical purposes. Copernicus, the European Union's Earth observation programme, uses satellite data to monitor environmental changes. According to ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher, 'Without those satellites that we have built - and Europe has built many of those - we would not understand the extent of climate change.'
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New objectives?
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