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ESA represents the European equivalent of NASA. Although is has a budget around 15 times smaller, ESA manages to stay active and profitable at the same time. Its top missions include a Mars expedition, and a series of commercial launches of communication satellites.
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| Name |
Formal Name |
Established |
Aim |
| ESA |
European Space Agency |
31 May 1975 |
to promote peaceful cooperation in space research and technology |
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Members: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK. (Cooperating states : Canada, Hungary).
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ESA's most common launchers are known as Ariane. The first Ariane launch happened in 1981. They have been mainly used to place commercial communication satellites in orbit. Today ESA works on the Ariane 5 development, after testing, building and launching the series 1, 2, 3 and 4.
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Organization
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Name: European Space Agency
Address: 8-10 rue Mario Nikis - 75738 PARIS Cedex 15 (France)
URL: #name
Contacts: email:esaweb@esrin.esa.it - Tel.: (33 0)1 53 69 76 54; Fax : (33 0)1 53 69 75 60
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