Fulfilling my dreams with my DiscoverEU pass

After being awarded a DiscoverEU ticket by the European Commission, I wondered how I should use this experience. Having pondered, I decided to try my luck visiting all of the locations of the European Space Agency as I am a massive fan of astronomy and space exploration.    

My route would go this way:

• Start of Travel – 9.7.2022
• European Space Agency Headquarters [ESA] – 11.7.2022 (Paris, France)
• European Centre for Space Applications [ECSAT] – 12.7.2022 (Harwell, United Kingdom)
• European Space Security and Education Centre [ESEC] – 13.7.2022 (Redu, Belgium)
• European Space Research and Technology Centre [ESTEC] – 14.7.2022 (Noordwijk, Netherlands)(Participation in Euroscience Open Forum) [ESOF] – 15.7.2022
• European Astronaut Centre [EAC] – 18.7.2022 (Cologne, Germany)
• European Space Operations Centre [ESOC] – 19.7.2022 (Darmstadt, Germany)
• European Space Astronomy Centre [ESAC] – 22.7.2022 (Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain)
• Centre for Earth Observation [ESRIN] – 25.7.2022 (Frascati, Italy)
• End of Travel – 27.7.2022
   

During the time of my travels, I had the opportunity to explore all these Agencies and learn about the different projects and missions each one is responsible for.

When visiting the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands I was amazed by the size of the facilities. I had already considered it to be the largest of them all. Nevertheless, I believe that one could likely spend months viewing everything at the enormous complex and still be left with new things to discover as with nearly 2.500 employees ESTEC dwarfs all other facilities.

Another Agency that I was really looking forward to visiting was the European Space Operations Centre. In a way, I’ve been looking forward to my visit to ESOC the most out of all of the other ESA establishments, in large part due to popular media and always having had sort of a childish dream to perhaps one day work in a control room. Being in ESA’s main control room was certainly breathtaking for an avid fan of space exploration like me. There are many things I wasn’t able to see as with many other establishments of ESA, ESOC is simply too large to be experienced within a single day.
 

The summer heat was a struggle during my visit to Spain. During my tour at the Centre for Earth Observation located outside of Madrid, I had the chance to see how to operate the telescope from the computer interface within the observatory and opened the viewport to expose the telescope to the sun and make a solar observation. We did the observation and moved onto a small office pod nearby where we were more protected from the heat as the interior of the solar observatory was quite hot.  

All along my travels, I had the opportunity to meet people which I deeply admire. In my visit to the Centre for Earth Observation, I was particularly happy to have the chance to meet with people working at the department of ESA’s Planetary Defence Office, the NEO (Near Earth Object) Coordination Centre (NEOCC) as it is something that I’d personally be interested in doing once I’ve completed my degree. I wholeheartedly wish to return one day to talk more in-depth about these topics with these experts in the field but alas time passed swiftly.

This experience has fulfilled my dreams and helped me to better understand how I could go into the field after my studies. Having the chance to visit all these ESA establishments has been really rewarding and I have learned a lot. What's more, travelling by myself through the continent has enabled me to grow personally since I had to face many difficulties and unforeseen situations which I had to overcome to continue with my travels. 

Overall, I feel really lucky to have been able to experience this and I am really grateful for everyone who made it possible and took the time to show me around the different ESA facilities. 
 

Updated on Teisipäev, 17/02/2026