Editing European Space Agency

The '''European Space Agency (ESA)''', established in 1975, is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space with 17 current 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 about €3 billion in 2006.

'''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 [[w:NASA|NASA]] in space exploration.

==Related addons==
*[[Ariane 5]]
*[[Ariane 4]]
*[[Ariane 1/2/3]]
*[[Kourou (Addon)]]
*[[Mars Express]]
*[[Cassini-Huygens]]
*[[SMART-1]]

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[[Category:Aerospace agency]]