A royal and presidential visit to ESA’s technical heart

A royal and presidential visit to ESA's technical heart As part of the Italian State visit to the Netherlands, Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano toured ESA's space research and technical centre on Wednesday. Accompanied by the Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Maxime Verhagen, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and Franco Ongaro, Head of ESTEC, welcomed the special guests. "It is a true honour for me to be here today and it is a privilege to be able to guide you through a place where European excellence is portrayed at its best," said Mr Dordain. "ESTEC is the technical heart of ESA, and there is no better place in Europe where one can see what space can do for the benefit of European citizens." - "We can be proud of what we are able to do in Europe, in Holland, in Italy, in all 19 Member states of ESA, and you can be as proud as I am of all these people and their competences." From rocket science to satellites A range of programmes was presented to the visitors: ESA's new Vega small launcher, the CubeSat satellites, ExoMars, Earth observation data to monitor the environment and manage natural hazards, Iris for managing air traffic, the Miramap company from one of ESA's Business Incubation Centres, and the BepiColombo and CryoSat missions were featured. Benefits of space ESA astronauts André Kuipers and Luca Parmitano talked about training for space and living in space. Astronaut Samantha Cristoferetti sent a recorded video message from Star City in Russia, where she is training for her mission to the International Space Station.