The verified answer
As of Oct 2026, DEPLOY verifies European Space Agency: 1 model, 1 deployment across 1 region. 2 sources back the record.
CategorySpace
Overview
Intergovernmental European space agency (23 member states) operating space robotics, AI-enabled Earth observation satellites, and planetary exploration missions. ESA's Automation and Robotics group develops technology for space-based autonomous systems including manipulators, rovers, and autonomous vehicles. Key robotic missions include the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover (ExoMars programme, drilling 2m subsurface), Phi-Sat-1 (first satellite to use AI for Earth observation imagery processing in-flight, launched September 2020), and the Space Rider reusable spacecraft. ESA member states approved a record €22.07 billion budget for 2026-2028 at the November 2025 Council of Ministers.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 1 deployment on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
Director General
Type
Budget
Annual budget
Key robotics missions
Automation & Robotics group
Phi-Sat-1
ExoMars rover
Member states
Financial stage
Data & sources
Web sources
2
2 sources backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Partnerships
Every company European Space Agency has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1Airbus Defence and Space1× joint
Most recent
European Space Agency on the deployment map
View the global map1 verified deployment across 1 region, newest verified Sep 2020. Explore where European Space Agency's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full European Space Agency deployment record →
Relationships
Current leadership (1)
- Josef Aschbacher Director GeneralSEC-verified
Safety record
No incidents on record for European Space Agency.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Operator customers (1)
- European Space Agency1 deployment
Recent coverage
European Space Agency in third-party press
Polish KP Labs Raised €4.4M From Momentum Capital Partners To Solve the Satellite Data Bottleneck
ESA FIRST! project DIQAM aims to cut AM space part qualification to “one click”
ESA flags retro console maker Anbernic for inclusion on US government's Notorious Market List
Peers
56 peers across 1 segment. Every European Space Agency competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
space(56)
36 companies in this segment · low_concentration (HHI 1188.742650389188) · leader K2 Space at 2172%
- Airbusdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Astrobotic Technologydirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Astroscaledirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Boeingdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- China Manned Space Agencydirect competitor(inferred)strong
- China National Space Administrationdirect competitor(inferred)strong
Mentioned on (4)
Registry pages whose text names European Space Agency.
Companies (2)
Robots and products (2)
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- aggregator_estimate
- Lifecycle stage
- early
- Counterparty risk class
- unknown
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
1 total · 1 operating
Every company European Space Agency has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
Most-frequent partners
- 1Airbus Defence and Space1× joint
All 1 partnerships
open in the atlas →- ESA x Airbus Defence and Space (Ariane 6)withAirbus Defence and Spacedevelopment—operating
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Verified media addedVerifiedJun 11, 2026
Artificial intelligence for Earth observation | ESA
- Record createdJun 6, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedSep 3, 2020
Phi-Sat-1 at Low Earth Orbit
Sources (2)
Common questions
What is European Space Agency?
What does European Space Agency make?
Who competes with European Space Agency?
Who is the CEO of European Space Agency?
Where is European Space Agency headquartered?
Where does European Space Agency operate robots?
How many robots has European Space Agency deployed?
Is European Space Agency a top robotics company?
When was European Space Agency founded?
Is European Space Agency safe?
Methodology: Verified · 2 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-10-10
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-10-10
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- knowledge-base
- Knowledge base
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for European Space Agency.Peer companies
- Impulse Space6 models
- AstroForge3 models
- Astrobotic Technology3 models
- Blackswan Space3 models
- China National Space Administration3 models
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory3 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning European Space Agency from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Polish KP Labs Raised €4.4M From Momentum Capital Partners To Solve the Satellite Data Bottleneck
Gliwice-based space tech firm KP Labs has secured 19.4 million PLN (€4.44M) in growth equity from Momentum Capital Partners. By processing data directly in orbit, their smart tech…
ESA FIRST! project DIQAM aims to cut AM space part qualification to “one click”
Discover exclusive software insights at AMA: Software 2026, on October 22. Register for free! German additive manufacturing software developer amsight is heading DIQAM (Digital…
ESA flags retro console maker Anbernic for inclusion on US government's Notorious Market List
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has recommended that retro console maker Anbernic be added to the US government's Notorious Market List. Read more
ESA targets Anbernic emulation handhelds as "superfake" piracy enablers
Exxelia Components Support ESA’s BepiColombo Mission to Mercury
As the European Space Agency’s (ESA) BepiColombo mission approaches Mercury after an eight-year interplanetary journey, Exxelia confirms that several of its film capacitors,…
ESA Director General Outlines €10 Billion 10-Year Plan for Sovereign European Crewed Spaceflight
On October 5, 2026, European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher outlined a 10-year, €10 billion ($10.9 billion) proposal to establish an independent European…
GameStop is hoping PS5 Pro buyers are desperate enough to pay $500 over MSRP
A shortage has driven resale prices through the roof.
Violent crash involving stalled vehicle on freeway caught on camera
A violent crash between a car driving on a freeway and one that was stalled out was caught on video late Friday night. It all occurred around 11:25 p.m. on the northbound span of…
The maker of non-text AI model Jev valued at $7.5B just weeks after launch
What has users and large corporations so excited about Jev is TypeSafe’s claim that it works significantly faster and uses far fewer tokens than LLMs.
Is Amazon driving up prices at other stores?
California is accusing Amazon of a price-fixing scheme that pushes wholesale vendors to raise prices at competing stores like Target and Walmart.
Jev creator TypeSafe closes $870M round at $7.5B valuation
TypeSafe Inc., the creator of the Jev artificial intelligence model, today announced that it has raised $870 million in funding at a $7.5 billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz…
El misterio de Irkutsk: una muerte, un laboratorio y el regreso de “la peste”, una palabra que aterra al mundo
Hay pocas palabras capaces de provocar una reacción tan inmediata como “peste”. Atraviesa siglos, evoca ciudades vacías, hospitales desbordados y capítulos enteros de la historia…
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/esa.md
- RSS feed: /companies/esa/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/a0d558ec-58f3-4f51-9ba3-b062c7d94b9d
- Revision history: /companies/esa/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Impulse Space6 models
- AstroForge3 models
- Astrobotic Technology3 models
- Blackswan Space3 models
- China National Space Administration3 models
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory3 models
Video
ESA’s future launcher preparatory programme is crafting a space transportation ecosystem, guiding the companies and engineers of today to develop and test the technologies required to meet future needs. Space transpor
Last July, a team of robots explored a simulated martian landscape in Germany, guided by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. This was the final
Will robots replace humans one day? When it comes to space exploration, robots are our precursors, gathering data to prepare humans for deep space. ESA robotics
Our astronaut Sophie Adenot shared this video on her social media channels with the caption: [EN] Day 113, orbit 1753 — I love robotic operations! 🦾 In this
Trailer of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission. In 2028, ESA will launch its most ambitious exploration mission to search for past and present signs of life
Overview of the European Large Logistics Lander mission. We are leading an alliance of international space agencies to prepare a robotic mission to the Moon to
This summer, a team of robots explored a simulated martian landscape in Germany, remotely guided by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. This ma
Read more at http://www.botjunkie.com/ and http://www.esa.int/esa-mmg/mmg.pl?b=b&type=V&single=y&start=92&size=b
ESA trainee Sander Coene explains the significance of virtual reality and its potential for future space exploration and robotics training. Sander and members
Watch a replay of our hangout with ESA Astronaut Tim Peake and Rosetta Project Scientist Dr Matt Taylor as they discuss robotics in space missions. #robotsinspa
The theme of the fourth DVD in the series is space robotics. ISS DVD Lesson 4 has been produced with the support and input from ESA astronauts, robotic experts,
Join Spaceport Odyssey iOS App: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spaceport-odyssey/id1433648940 Join Spaceport Browser: http://spaceport.spaceedu.net/ Learn abou
License: ESA / SpaceUp Cologne / spacelivecast.de, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/
Heat Index
Serious52/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
European Space Agency draws attention at the 99th percentile but verifies reality at the 7th percentile among space robots. Hype Gap +92.1, 1st widest among space robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 1 verified deployment. Meaningful press and media coverage across the period. Deployment footprint remains limited relative to category peers.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Oct 19, 2026