European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) is the European organization devoted to the development of space programs in its 18 member states: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Canada also takes part in some projects under a cooperation agreement. Thanks to a cooperative approach, ESA is able to undertake space-related activities that would not be affordable by any single European country. ESA is organized in directorates dedicated to different space programs, among which are Human Spaceflight, Science, Earth Observation, and Telecommunication. Over the last few years, communication and education have played a growing role in the agency: in the Legal Affairs and External Relations directorate, there is currently a department for communication and a separate one for education.

ESA was originally funded in 1975 by 10 founding members as a result of the merging between the European Launch Development Organisation and the European Space Research Organisation. These two organizations had been created in 1964 as a result of a commission study aimed at investigating the possible avenues for European cooperation in space. The need to create a European space organization was strongly felt in the post–World War II scientific community, which saw in international collaborations the best way to reboost European science and technology after the dramatic years of the war and thus becoming competitive on the international level. ESA was created as an organization with no military purposes. It is currently established in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

The corporate communication and education departments work closely with teams and other staff in each directorate to ensure that the media or educational materials and activities are updated with the latest news and achievements. The ESA portal is the main tool for public outreach, together with mailing lists, press releases, and events, mostly organized to celebrate space missions and major project milestones, according to dedicated mission communication plans.

ESA communication and education is often carried out in close collaboration with the other international space agencies, such as U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. A peculiar aspect that has to be taken into account from communicators at ESA is the multiculturalism of the agency, which sometimes requires different strategies (for example, because of different school curricula in the different countries), as well as different languages.

As in most public international organizations, outreach is funded and supported for a number of reasons. First, European citizens have to be informed about the latest advances in the space field from a European perspective, as an outcome of an investment of public money. This is a right of taxpayers, but it is also a necessity for ESA to show to stakeholders, decision makers, and European citizens the achievements and benefits of a space program for Europe. This shared knowledge represents a common ground necessary to obtain general support from the citizens and funding for future missions. In cases of debated and expensive projects, such as the International Space Station, ESA communication is [Page 284]particularly sensitive to the need to sustain and support its strategic approach and promote benefits for European citizens.

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