http://www.esa.int/export/esaSC/index.html
The Netherlands participates in this organization, whose mission is comparable to that of NASA in the USA, although different in some respects. ESA headquarters are in Paris, but one of its largest and most important laboratories is housed at ESTEC in Noordwijk, just a few kilometers from the Sterrewacht. Michael Perryman, one of our Adjunct Professors, is on the staff of the Astrophysics Division at ESTEC. Examples of past ESA missions in which Leiden was heavily involved are the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) (Habing, Van Dishoeck, Miley), Hipparcos (Perryman, Le Poole, De Zeeuw). Current missions include HST (de Zeeuw, Franx) whereas examples of future missions are Herschel (de Graauw, van Dishoeck, Israel, van der Werf) and James Webb Space Telescope - JWST - (Franx, van Dishoeck). ***Gaia, Darwin, AWG/SSAC/SPC***