Against this background, the array of candidate new exploration campaigns draw on all of ESA’s world-class abilities – from space transportation (including future launchers) to operations, technology, communication, navigation, applications, and commercialisation. The underlying capability of being able to launch and deliver payloads to low-Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars is a unifying theme which will ensure constant scientific breakthroughs and technological developments, and so ensure Europe retains a place in the first rank of space explorers.

As ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher explains: “More than any other space activity, space exploration offers a unique blend of curiosity and opportunity – the curiosity to venture into the unknown in search of new horizons and new knowledge; and the opportunity to return to society the many benefits of making the journey.

“I now invite our political decision-makers to define Europe’s level of ambition so that ESA, together with all its stakeholders, can translate this strategy roadmap into reality.”