The European Space Agency (ESA; French: Agence spatiale européenne, ASE) is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, with 22 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,000 and an annual budget of about €5.25 billion / US$5.77 billion (2016). ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station programme); the launch and operation of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle. Its facilities are distributed among the following 5 research centres: \n* ESA science missions are based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands; \n* Earth Observation missions at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy; \n* ESA Mission Control (ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany; \n* the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in Cologne, Germany; \n* and the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) is located in Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain.

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