ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA’s Education Office is responsible for the Agency’s corporate education programme bringing together young people from many different nations.

The aim is to help young Europeans to gain and maintain an interest in science and technology, with the long-term objectives of contributing towards the creation of a knowledge-based society and ensuring the existence of a qualified workforce for the Agency that will ensure Europe’s continued leadership in space activities.

This is achieved by organising various activities designed for specific age groups, keeping the educational community informed about these developments, and providing inspirational materials that assist teachers and students with the learning process.

Support to teachers:

In recent years, ESA has been supporting the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO) project, which envisages the establishment of contact and resource centres which are manned by education experts and integrated into national educational systems and networks. A variety of educational materials has also been developed for students of various ages.

ESA Academy:

Through a tailored transfer of space know-how and interaction with space professionals, ESA Academy takes students through a learning path that enriches their academic education. As a result, students can enhance their skills, boost their motivation and ambitions, become acquainted with the standard professional practices applied nowadays in the space sector, and be better prepared for the labour market.

The two pillars of ESA Academy:

  • Hands-on projects

These include the full participation of students in all aspects of programmes to design and develop small satellites and experiments that can be flown on various microgravity platforms, such as balloons, sounding rockets, parabolic flights and CubeSats. These often include project-related workshops and training by experts.

  • The Training and Learning Programme

ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Programme is meant to offer a varied portfolio of training sessions given by space professionals from all ESA fields of expertise. The training sessions are available to interested science and engineering university students, not only to those that are already engaged in space-related studies. Specific sessions are also offered to the student teams participating in ESA Academy’s Hands-on Space Projects, as they are a perfect complement to their learning experience and can support them in the different phases of their projects.

ESA, Webpage

ESA Education, Webpage