In place for more than half a century, the complex ESTEC in Noordwijk is ESA’s single largest establishment, focused on developing technology, planning missions and testing satellites. More than 8700 visitors at the Open Day on 2 October 2016 were able to wander around the sprawling facility at their own pace, meeting astronauts, scientists and mission designers while seeing special exhibits and actual space hardware.

The theme of this year’s Open Day was “Breath of Life” – the ExoMars orbiter, currently nearing Mars, will be searching out methane and associated rare gases in the thin alien atmosphere as evidence of either surviving Mars microbes or a different kind of ‘life’ – subsurface volcanic activity, which would mean the planet remains geologically active.