The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,000 employees. ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); the launch and operation of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana.

Esrange Space Center is a rocket range and research centre located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the aurora borealis, sounding rocket launches, and satellite tracking. Built in 1964 by ESRO, one of the predecessors of the European Space Agency, the site is currently operated by the Swedish Space Corporation. An orbital launch complex, LC-3, has been built in the early 2020s.

Themis is an ESA rocket prototype – a flagship European demonstrator for low-cost rocket recovery and reuse technologies. Powered by the reusable, methane-fuelled engine Prometheus, it is developed with ArianeGroup as prime contractor and building on decades of European research and experience in rocketry and space operations, Themis is designed to launch, land vertically and live on for another mission.