page_title: List of European Space Agency programs and missions
section_title: Current
hierarchical_section_title: List of European Space Agency programs and missions / Non-programme missions / Current
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of ESA's Mars Express over the Tharsis volcanoes.
context_page_description: The European Space Agency operates a number of missions, both operational and scientific, including collaborations with other national space administrations such as the Japanese JAXA, the French CNES, the Italian ASI Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, the German DLR, the American NASA, and the Chinese CNSA. Their portfolio of missions also include many public-private partnership missions, a number of which with European satellite operators EUMETSAT, Eutelsat, and Inmarsat.
  A staple of the ESA's Science Doctrine is the Cosmic Vision programme, a series of space science missions chosen by the ESA to launch through competitions, similar to NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers programmes. It succeeds the Horizon 2000 and Horizon 2000+ programmes which launched notable missions such as Huygens, Rosetta and Gaia. Each space science mission are divided into two categories: "Sun and Solar System", missions studying the solar system, and "Astrophysics", missions studying interstellar astronomy.
context_section_description: Alphasat, launched July 2013 – Joint Inmarsat-ESA mission to launch an advanced geostationary communication satellite to serve Africa, Asia and Europe; the largest ever built by Europe.
  Artemis, launched July 2001 – Telecommunications mission. Ownership of the spacecraft transferred to Avanti in January 2014.
  EDRS, launched January 2016 to 2017 – Geosynchronous optical communication network consisting a constellation of two satellites, EDRS-A and EDRS-C.
  Galileo, launched October 2011 onward – Joint ESA-GSA geodesy project to create an indigenous global navigation satellite system independent of the Russian GLONASS, Chinese BeiDou and American GPS systems.
  Hubble, launched April 1990 – Joint NASA-ESA-STScl space observatory mission, carried out by a near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared telescope.
  Mars Express, launched June 2003 – Mars orbiter mission focused on observing the planet through high-resolution imagery and conducting research of the planet's interaction with the solar system.
  MSG, launched January 2004 to July 2015 – Joint EUMETSAT-ESA meteorology mission to launch the second generation of Meteosat satellites, of which four were launched over a period of eleven years.
  MetOp (first generation), launched October 2006 to 2018 – Joint EUMETSAT-ESA operational meteorology mission consisting three satellites launched over a period of twelve years.
  PROBA-1, launched October 2001 – Microsatellite earth observation and Low Earth Orbit technology demonstration mission for various new instruments.
  PROBA-2, launched November 2009 – Microsatellite earth observation and Low Earth Orbit technology demonstration mission, serving as the second flight in the Proba series.
  PROBA-V, launched May 2013 – Microsatellite earth observation mission focused on mapping land cover and vegetation growth across Earth in bi-daily cycles; the third mission in the Proba series.
  Sentinel family, launched April 2014 onward – Suite of Earth observation missions serving as the ESA's contribution to the European Commission's Copernicus Programme.
  Trace Gas Orbiter, launched March 2016 – Mars orbiter component of the ExoMars astrobiology mission, focused on observing methane in the planet's atmosphere for clues to past or present life on Mars.
caption: Artist's impression of the Mars Express spacecraft, the first ESA mission to orbit another planet, still operational as of July 2020.
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