Mandatory and optional

Mandatory activities

The general budget and the space science budget pay for basic activities such as studies of future projects, technology research and training. All member states contribute to these on a scale based on their gross national product.

Optional programmes

For other areas, each member state decides how much it takes part. These optional programmes include Earth observation, telecommunications, satellite navigation, space transportation, the International Space Station and microgravity research. This is why a country’s space agency matters: in Germany, for example, contributions to ESA are managed by the German Space Agency at DLR, described on Bonn.science.

The ESA Convention

The ESA Convention was opened for signature on 30 May 1975, when ten states signed it at once; it entered into force on 30 October 1980. It grew out of the convention of ESA’s predecessor, the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), whose story is on From ESRO to ESA.