The future ESA earth-observation strategy and ESA's 'living planet' programme

The European Space Agency future strategy for marks a big departure with th e past. Following the series, ERS1, ERS2, Envisat, which have established n o doubt of Europe's technical capability, the new programme will focus on s maller but more frequent spacecraft. Individual missions will be much more focused for both scientific purpose and applications. Information from spac e Earth Observation is an essential element in Europe's strategic armoury t o meet the environmental and economic challenges of the next century. For t he space community, the challenge will be to show that the small focussed a pproach really can meet the requirements for a much-reduced budget, (C) 200 0 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.