Only in recent years has Europe’s own planetary space science programme received wide spread recognition and attention by the EU political establishment, the international media and the European public. In part this is due to the enormous power, budget and media profile of NASA but also it is only in the last decade that the European Space Agency (ESA) has established an exciting and innovative planetary science programme of its own. The outstanding success of Mars Express (the first purely European mission to another planet), the dramatic landing of the European Huygens probe on Titan in January 2005 and the on-going success of the joint ESA/NASA Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn has shown Europe’s capability and innovation in space and planetary science technology. The launch of the Rosetta mission to study and land upon a comet; the preparation of the Bepi-Colombo mission to Mercury; Europe’s major investment in the European Southern Observatory (ESO), through use of the Very Large Telesco (en)
Only in recent years has Europe’s own planetary space science programme received wide spread recognition and attention by the EU political establishment, the international media and the European public. In part this is due to the enormous power, budget and media profile of NASA but also it is only in the last decade that the European Space Agency (ESA) has established an exciting and innovative planetary science programme of its own. The outstanding success of Mars Express (the first purely European mission to another planet), the dramatic landing of the European Huygens probe on Titan in January 2005 and the on-going success of the joint ESA/NASA Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn has shown Europe’s capability and innovation in space and planetary science technology. The launch of the Rosetta mission to study and land upon a comet; the preparation of the Bepi-Colombo mission to Mercury; Europe’s major investment in the European Southern Observatory (ESO), through use of the Very Large Telesco (cs)