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European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 22-member intergovernmental body devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,200 people globally as of 2022, ESA was founded in 1975. Its 2024 annual budget was €7.8 billion.

ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); the launch and operation of crewless exploration missions to other planets (such as Mars) and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication ; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou (French Guiana), France. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 6 will be operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle. The agency is also working with NASA to manufacture the Orion spacecraft service module that flies on the Space Launch System.

Foundation

After World War II, many European scientists left Western Europe in order to work with the United States. Although the 1950s boom made it possible for Western European countries to invest in research and specifically in space-related activities, Western European scientists realised solely national projects would not be able to compete with the two main superpowers. In 1958, only months after the Sputnik shock, Edoardo Amaldi (Italy) and Pierre Auger (France), two prominent members of the Western European scientific community, met to discuss the foundation of a common Western European space agency. The meeting was attended by scientific representatives from eight countries.

The Western European nations decided to have two agencies: one concerned with developing a launch system, ELDO (European Launcher Development Organisation), and the other the precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation). The latter was established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962. From 1968 to 1972, ESRO launched seven research satellites, but ELDO was not able to deliver a launch vehicle. Both agencies struggled with the underfunding and diverging interests of their participants.

ESA in its current form was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975, when ESRO was merged with ELDO. ESA had ten founding member states: Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. These signed the ESA Convention in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, when the convention came into force. During this interval the agency functioned in a de facto fashion. ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B, a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emissions in the universe, which was first worked on by ESRO.

Later activities

ESA collaborated with NASA on the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the world's first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup. Hipparcos, a star-mapping mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses and the Hubble Space Telescope were all jointly carried out with NASA. Later scientific missions in cooperation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, to which ESA contributed by building the Titan landing module Huygens.

As the successor of ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, carried mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward. The next two versions of the Ariane rocket were intermediate stages in the development of a more advanced launch system, the Ariane 4, which operated between 1988 and 2003 and established ESA as the world leader in commercial space launches in the 1990s. Although the succeeding Ariane 5 experienced a failure on its first flight, it has since firmly established itself within the heavily competitive commercial space launch market with 112 successful launches until 2021. The successor launch vehicle, the Ariane 6, is under development and had a successful long-firing engine test in November 2023. The ESA plans for the Ariane 6 to launch in June or July 2024.

The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, the CSA and Roscosmos, one of the major participants in scientific space research. Although ESA had relied on co-operation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances (such as tough legal restrictions on information sharing by the United States military) led to decisions to rely more on itself and on co-operation with Russia. A 2011 press issue thus stated:

"Russia is ESA's first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. There is a framework agreement between ESA and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation and partnership in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and cooperation is already underway in two different areas of launcher activity that will bring benefits to both partners."

Notable ESA programmes include SMART-1, a probe testing cutting-edge space propulsion technology, the Mars Express and Venus Express missions, as well as the development of the Ariane 5 rocket and its role in the ISS partnership. ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot, launched on 27 December 2006, a milestone in the search for exoplanets.

On 21 January 2019, ArianeGroup and Arianespace announced a one-year contract with ESA to study and prepare for a mission to mine the Moon for lunar regolith.

In 2021 the ESA ministerial council agreed to the "Matosinhos manifesto" which set three priority areas (referred to as accelerators) "space for a green future, a rapid and resilient crisis response, and the protection of space assets", and two further high visibility projects (referred to as inspirators) an icy moon sample return mission; and human space exploration. In the same year the recruitment process began for the 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group.

1 July 2023 saw the launch of the Euclid spacecraft, developed jointly with the Euclid Consortium, after 10 years of planning and building it is designed to better understand dark energy and dark matter by accurately measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Facilities
The agency's facilities date back to ESRO and are deliberately distributed among various countries and areas. The most important are the following centres:

 * ESA headquarter is in Paris, France
 * ESA science missions are based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands;
 * Earth Observation missions at ESA Centre for Earth Observation in Frascati, Italy;
 * ESA Mission Control (ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany;
 * the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in Cologne, Germany;
 * the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT), a research institute created in 2009, is located in Harwell, England;
 * the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) is located in Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain.
 * the European Space Security and Education Centre (ESEC), located in Redu, Belgium;
 * the ESTRACK tracking and deep space communication network.
 * Many other facilities are operated by national space agencies in close collaboration with ESA.
 * Esrange near Kiruna in Sweden.
 * Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, France
 * Toulouse Space Centre, France.
 * Institute of Space Propulsion in Lampoldshausen, Germany.
 * Columbus Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

Mission
The treaty establishing the European Space Agency reads:

"The purpose of the Agency shall be to provide for and to promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European States in space research and technology and their space applications, with a view to their being used for scientific purposes and for operational space applications systems…"

ESA is responsible for setting a unified space and related industrial policy, recommending space objectives to the member states, and integrating national programs like satellite development, into the European program as much as possible.

Jean-Jacques Dordain – ESA's Director General (2003–2015) – outlined the European Space Agency's mission in a 2003 interview:

"Today space activities have pursued the benefit of citizens, and citizens are asking for a better quality of life on Earth. They want greater security and economic wealth, but they also want to pursue their dreams, to increase their knowledge, and they want younger people to be attracted to the pursuit of science and technology.

I think that space can do all of this: it can produce a higher quality of life, better security, more economic wealth, and also fulfill our citizens' dreams and thirst for knowledge, and attract the young generation. This is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be even more important in the future."

Activities and programmes
ESA describes its work in two overlapping ways:
 * For the general public, the various fields of work are described as "Activities".
 * Budgets are organised as "Programmes".

These are either mandatory or optional.

Activities
According to the ESA website, the activities are:
 * Observing the Earth
 * Human and Robotic Exploration
 * Launchers
 * Navigation
 * Space Science
 * Space Engineering & Technology
 * Operations
 * Telecommunications & Integrated Applications
 * Preparing for the Future
 * Space for Climate

Programmes
• Copernicus Programme

• Cosmic Vision

• ExoMars

• FAST20XX

• Galileo

• Horizon 2000

• Living Planet Programme

• Spanish Trainees

• Terrae Novae Programme

• Argonaut (lunar lander)

Mandatory
Every member country (known as 'Member States') must contribute to these programmes: The European Space Agency Science Programme is a long-term programme of space science missions.

 * Technology Development Element Programme
 * Science Core Technology Programme
 * General Study Programme
 * European Component Initiative

Optional
Depending on their individual choices the countries can contribute to the following programmes, becoming 'Participating States', listed according to: • Launchers

• Earth Observation

• Human Spaceflight and Exploration

• Telecommunications

• Navigation

• Space Situational Awareness

• Technology

Employment
As of 2023, ESA employs around 2200 people, and thousands of contractors. Initially, new employees are contracted for an expandable four-year term, which is until the organization's retirement age of 63. According to ESA's documents, the staff can receive myriad of perks, such as financial childcare support, retirement plans, and financial help when migrating. ESA also allows employees prevent any private documents or correspondences from disclosure to outside parties. Ars Technica's 2023 report, which contained testimonies of 18 people, suggested that there is a widespread harassment between management and its employees, especially with its contractors. Since ESA is an international organization, unaffiliated with any single nation, any form of legal action is difficult to raise against the organization.

Membership and contribution to ESA
Member states participate to varying degrees with both mandatory space programs and those that are optional. , the mandatory programmes made up 25% of total expenditures while optional space programmes were the other 75%. The European Space Agency has traditionally implemented a policy of "georeturn", where funds that ESA member states provide to the ESA "are returned in the form of contracts to companies in those countries."

By 2015, ESA was an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states. The 2008 ESA budget amounted to €3.0 billion whilst the 2009 budget amounted to €3.6 billion. The total budget amounted to about €3.7 billion in 2010, €3.99 billion in 2011, €4.02 billion in 2012, €4.28 billion in 2013, €4.10 billion in 2014 and €4.33 billion in 2015.*

English and French are the two official languages of the ESA. Additionally, official documents are also provided in German and documents regarding the Spacelab have been also provided in Italian. If found appropriate, the agency may conduct its correspondence in any language of a member state.

The following table lists all the member states and adjunct members, their ESA convention ratification dates, and their contributions as of 2022:

Non-full member states
Previously associated members were Austria, Norway and Finland, all of which later joined ESA as full members. As of November 8, 2023 there are five associate members: Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Canada. The first four members have shown interest in full membership and may eventually apply within the next years.

Slovenia
Since 2016, Slovenia has been an associated member of the ESA. In November 2023 Slovenia formally applied for full membership. In June 2024 Prime Minister Robert Golob and Director General Josef Aschbacher have signed an agreement that will see Slovenia become a full member of ESA on 1 January 2025, when the current Association Agreement expires.

Latvia
Latvia became the second current associated member on 30 June 2020, when the Association Agreement was signed by ESA Director Jan Wörner and the Minister of Education and Science of Latvia, Ilga Šuplinska in Riga. The Saeima ratified it on 27 July.

Lithuania
In May 2021, Lithuania became the third current associated member. As a consequence its citizens became eligible to apply to the 2022 ESA Astronaut group, applications for which were scheduled to close one week later. The deadline was therefore extended by three weeks to allow Lithuanians a fair chance to apply.

Slovakia
Slovakia's Associate membership came into effect on 13 October 2022, for an initial duration of seven years. The Association Agreement supersedes the European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement, which entered into force upon Slovakia's subscription to the Plan for European Cooperating States Charter on 4 February 2016, a scheme introduced at ESA in 2001. The ECS Agreement was subsequently extended until 3 August 2022.

Canada
Since 1 January 1979, Canada has had the special status of a Cooperating State within ESA. By virtue of this accord, the Canadian Space Agency takes part in ESA's deliberative bodies and decision-making and also in ESA's programmes and activities. Canadian firms can bid for and receive contracts to work on programmes. The accord has a provision ensuring a fair industrial return to Canada. The most recent Cooperation Agreement was signed on 15 December 2010 with a term extending to 2020. For 2014, Canada's annual assessed contribution to the ESA general budget was €6,059,449 (CAD$8,559,050). For 2017, Canada has increased its annual contribution to €21,600,000 (CAD$30,000,000).

Budget appropriation and allocation

ESA is funded from annual contributions by national governments of members as well as from an annual contribution by the European Union (EU).

The budget of ESA was €5.250 billion in 2016. Every 3–4 years, ESA member states agree on a budget plan for several years at an ESA member states conference. This plan can be amended in future years, however provides the major guideline for ESA for several years. The 2016 budget allocations for major areas of ESA activity are shown in the chart on the right.

Countries typically have their own space programmes that differ in how they operate organisationally and financially with ESA. For example, the French space agency CNES has a total budget of €2015 million, of which €755 million is paid as direct financial contribution to ESA. Several space-related projects are joint projects between national space agencies and ESA (e.g. COROT). Also, ESA is not the only European governmental space organisation (for example European Union Satellite Centre and the European Union Space Programme Agency).

Enlargement
After the decision of the ESA Council of 21/22 March 2001, the procedure for accession of the European states was detailed as described the document titled "The Plan for European Co-operating States (PECS)". Nations that want to become a full member of ESA do so in 3 stages. First a Cooperation Agreement is signed between the country and ESA. In this stage, the country has very limited financial responsibilities. If a country wants to co-operate more fully with ESA, it signs a European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement, albeit to be a candidate for said agreement, a country must be European. The ECS Agreement makes companies based in the country eligible for participation in ESA procurements. The country can also participate in all ESA programmes, except for the Basic Technology Research Programme. While the financial contribution of the country concerned increases, it is still much lower than that of a full member state. The agreement is normally followed by a Plan For European Cooperating State (or PECS Charter). This is a 5-year programme of basic research and development activities aimed at improving the nation's space industry capacity. At the end of the 5-year period, the country can either begin negotiations to become a full member state or an associated state or sign a new PECS Charter. Many countries, most of which joined the EU in both 2004 and 2007, have started to co-operate with ESA on various levels:

During the Ministerial Meeting in December 2014, ESA ministers approved a resolution calling for discussions to begin with Israel, Australia and South Africa on future association agreements. The ministers noted that "concrete cooperation is at an advanced stage" with these nations and that "prospects for mutual benefits are existing".

A separate space exploration strategy resolution calls for further co-operation with the United States, Russia and China on "LEO exploration, including a continuation of ISS cooperation and the development of a robust plan for the coordinated use of space transportation vehicles and systems for exploration purposes, participation in robotic missions for the exploration of the Moon, the robotic exploration of Mars, leading to a broad Mars Sample Return mission in which Europe should be involved as a full partner, and human missions beyond LEO in the longer term."

In August 2019, ESA and the Australian Space Agency signed a joint statement of intent "to explore deeper cooperation and identify projects in a range of areas including deep space, communications, navigation, remote asset management, data analytics and mission support." Details of the cooperation were laid out in a framework agreement signed by the two entities.

On 17 November 2020, ESA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). SANSA CEO Dr. Valanathan Munsami tweeted: "Today saw another landmark event for SANSA with the signing of an MoU with ESA. This builds on initiatives that we have been discussing for a while already and which gives effect to these. Thanks Jan for your hand of friendship and making this possible."

Launch vehicles
The ESA currently has two operational launch vehicles Vega and Ariane 6. Rocket launches are carried out by Arianespace, which has 23 shareholders representing the industry that manufactures the Ariane 5 as well as CNES, at ESA's Guiana Space Centre. Because many communication satellites have equatorial orbits, launches from French Guiana are able to take larger payloads into space than from spaceports at higher latitudes. In addition, equatorial launches give spacecraft an extra 'push' of nearly 500 m/s due to the higher rotational velocity of the Earth at the equator compared to near the Earth's poles where rotational velocity approaches zero.

Ariane 6
Ariane 6 is a heavy lift expendable launch vehicle developed by Arianespace. The Ariane 6 entered into its inaugural flight campaign on 26 April 2024 with the flight conducted on 9 July 2024.

Vega

Vega is ESA's carrier for small satellites. Developed by seven ESA members led by Italy, it is capable of carrying a payload with a mass of between 300 and 1500 kg to an altitude of 700 km, for low polar orbit. Its maiden launch from Kourou was on 13 February 2012. Vega began full commercial exploitation in December 2015.

The rocket has three solid propulsion stages and a liquid propulsion upper stage (the AVUM) for accurate orbital insertion and the ability to place multiple payloads into different orbits.

A larger version of the Vega launcher, Vega-C had its first flight in July 2022. The new evolution of the rocket incorporates a larger first stage booster, the P120C replacing the P80, an upgraded Zefiro (rocket stage) second stage, and the AVUM+ upper stage. This new variant enables larger single payloads, dual payloads, return missions, and orbital transfer capabilities.

Ariane launch vehicle development funding
Historically, the Ariane family rockets have been funded primarily "with money contributed by ESA governments seeking to participate in the program rather than through competitive industry bids. This [has meant that] governments commit multiyear funding to the development with the expectation of a roughly 90% return on investment in the form of industrial workshare." ESA is proposing changes to this scheme by moving to competitive bids for the development of the Ariane 6.

Future rocket development
Future projects include the Prometheus reusable engine technology demonstrator, Phoebus (an upgraded second stage for Ariane 6), and Themis (a reusable first stage).

Formation and development
At the time ESA was formed, its main goals did not encompass human space flight; rather it considered itself to be primarily a scientific research organisation for uncrewed space exploration in contrast to its American and Soviet counterparts. It is therefore not surprising that the first non-Soviet European in space was not an ESA astronaut on a European space craft; it was Czechoslovak Vladimír Remek who in 1978 became the first non-Soviet or American in space (the first man in space being Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union) – on a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, followed by the Pole Mirosław Hermaszewski and East German Sigmund Jähn in the same year. This Soviet co-operation programme, known as Intercosmos, primarily involved the participation of Eastern bloc countries. In 1982, however, Jean-Loup Chrétien became the first non-Communist Bloc astronaut on a flight to the Soviet Salyut 7 space station.

Because Chrétien did not officially fly into space as an ESA astronaut, but rather as a member of the French CNES astronaut corps, the German Ulf Merbold is considered the first ESA astronaut to fly into space. He participated in the STS-9 Space Shuttle mission that included the first use of the European-built Spacelab in 1983. STS-9 marked the beginning of an extensive ESA/NASA joint partnership that included dozens of space flights of ESA astronauts in the following years. Some of these missions with Spacelab were fully funded and organisationally and scientifically controlled by ESA (such as two missions by Germany and one by Japan) with European astronauts as full crew members rather than guests on board. Beside paying for Spacelab flights and seats on the shuttles, ESA continued its human space flight co-operation with the Soviet Union and later Russia, including numerous visits to Mir.

During the latter half of the 1980s, European human space flights changed from being the exception to routine and therefore, in 1990, the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany was established. It selects and trains prospective astronauts and is responsible for the co-ordination with international partners, especially with regard to the International Space Station. As of 2006, the ESA astronaut corps officially included twelve members, including nationals from most large European countries except the United Kingdom.

In 2008, ESA started to recruit new astronauts so that final selection would be due in spring 2009. Almost 10,000 people registered as astronaut candidates before registration ended in June 2008. 8,413 fulfilled the initial application criteria. Of the applicants, 918 were chosen to take part in the first stage of psychological testing, which narrowed down the field to 192. After two-stage psychological tests and medical evaluation in early 2009, as well as formal interviews, six new members of the European Astronaut Corps were selected – five men and one woman.

Crew vehicles
In the 1980s, France pressed for an independent European crew launch vehicle. Around 1978, it was decided to pursue a reusable spacecraft model and starting in November 1987 a project to create a mini-shuttle by the name of Hermes was introduced. The craft was comparable to early proposals for the Space Shuttle and consisted of a small reusable spaceship that would carry 3 to 5 astronauts and 3 to 4 metric tons of payload for scientific experiments. With a total maximum weight of 21 metric tons it would have been launched on the Ariane 5 rocket, which was being developed at that time. It was planned solely for use in low Earth orbit space flights. The planning and pre-development phase concluded in 1991; the production phase was never fully implemented because at that time the political landscape had changed significantly. With the fall of the Soviet Union ESA looked forward to co-operation with Russia to build a next-generation space vehicle. Thus the Hermes programme was cancelled in 1995 after about 3 billion dollars had been spent. The Columbus space station programme had a similar fate.

In the 21st century, ESA started new programmes in order to create its own crew vehicles, most notable among its various projects and proposals is Hopper, whose prototype by EADS, called Phoenix, has already been tested. While projects such as Hopper are neither concrete nor to be realised within the next decade, other possibilities for human spaceflight in co-operation with the Russian Space Agency have emerged. Following talks with the Russian Space Agency in 2004 and June 2005, a co-operation between ESA and the Russian Space Agency was announced to jointly work on the Russian-designed Kliper, a reusable spacecraft that would be available for space travel beyond LEO (e.g. the moon or even Mars). It was speculated that Europe would finance part of it. A €50 million participation study for Kliper, which was expected to be approved in December 2005, was finally not approved by the ESA member states. The Russian state tender for the project was subsequently cancelled in 2006.

In June 2006, ESA member states granted 15 million to the Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS) study, a two-year study to design a spacecraft capable of going beyond Low-Earth orbit based on the current Soyuz design. This project was pursued with Roskosmos instead of the cancelled Kliper proposal. A decision on the actual implementation and construction of the CSTS spacecraft was contemplated for 2008. In mid-2009 EADS Astrium was awarded a €21 million study into designing a crew vehicle based on the European ATV which is believed to now be the basis of the Advanced Crew Transportation System design.

In November 2012, ESA decided to join NASA's Orion programme. The ATV would form the basis of a propulsion unit for NASA's new crewed spacecraft. ESA may also seek to work with NASA on Orion's launch system as well in order to secure a seat on the spacecraft for its own astronauts.

In September 2014, ESA signed an agreement with Sierra Nevada Corporation for co-operation in Dream Chaser project. Further studies on the Dream Chaser for European Utilization or DC4EU project were funded, including the feasibility of launching a Europeanised Dream Chaser onboard Ariane 5.

Cooperation with other countries and organisations
ESA has signed co-operation agreements with the following states that currently neither plan to integrate as tightly with ESA institutions as Canada, nor envision future membership of ESA: Argentina, Brazil, China, India (for the Chandrayan mission), Russia and Turkey.

Additionally, ESA has joint projects with the EUSPA of the European Union, NASA of the United States and is participating in the International Space Station together with the United States (NASA), Russia and Japan (JAXA).

National space organisations of member states

 * The Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) (National Centre for Space Study) is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public establishment of industrial and commercial character"). Its headquarters are in central Paris. CNES is the main participant on the Ariane project. Indeed, CNES designed and tested all Ariane family rockets (mainly from its centre in Évry near Paris)
 * The UK Space Agency is a partnership of the UK government departments which are active in space. Through the UK Space Agency, the partners provide delegates to represent the UK on the various ESA governing bodies. Each partner funds its own programme.
 * The Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana or ASI) was founded in 1988 to promote, co-ordinate and conduct space activities in Italy. Operating under the Ministry of the Universities and of Scientific and Technological Research, the agency cooperates with numerous entities active in space technology and with the president of the Council of Ministers. Internationally, the ASI provides Italy's delegation to the Council of the European Space Agency and to its subordinate bodies.
 * The German Aerospace Center (DLR) (German: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V.) is the national research centre for aviation and space flight of the Federal Republic of Germany and of other member states in the Helmholtz Association. Its extensive research and development projects are included in national and international cooperative programmes. In addition to its research projects, the centre is the assigned space agency of Germany bestowing headquarters of German space flight activities and its associates.
 * The Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) (National Institute for Aerospace Technique) is a Public Research Organisation specialised in aerospace research and technology development in Spain. Among other functions, it serves as a platform for space research and acts as a significant testing facility for the aeronautic and space sector in the country.

NASA
ESA has a long history of collaboration with NASA. Since ESA's astronaut corps was formed, the Space Shuttle has been the primary launch vehicle used by ESA's astronauts to get into space through partnership programmes with NASA. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Spacelab programme was an ESA-NASA joint research programme that had ESA develop and manufacture orbital labs for the Space Shuttle for several flights on which ESA participate with astronauts in experiments.

In robotic science mission and exploration missions, NASA has been ESA's main partner. Cassini–Huygens was a joint NASA-ESA mission, along with the Infrared Space Observatory, INTEGRAL, SOHO, and others. Also, the Hubble Space Telescope is a joint project of NASA and ESA. Future ESA-NASA joint projects include the James Webb Space Telescope and the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. NASA has supported ESA's MarcoPolo-R mission which landed on asteroid Bennu in October 2020 and is scheduled to return a sample to Earth for further analysis in 2023. NASA and ESA will also likely join for a Mars sample-return mission. In October 2020, the ESA entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NASA to work together on the Artemis program, which will provide an orbiting Lunar Gateway and also accomplish the first crewed lunar landing in 50 years, whose team will include the first woman on the Moon. Astronaut selection announcements are expected within two years of the 2024 scheduled launch date. ESA also purchases seats on the NASA operated Commercial Crew Program. The first ESA astronaut to be on a Commercial Crew Program mission is Thomas Pesquet. Pesquet launched into space aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour on the Crew-2 mission. ESA also has seats on Crew-3 with Matthias Maurer and Crew-4 with Samantha Cristoforetti.

SpaceX
In 2023, following the successful launch of the Euclid telescope in July on a Falcon 9 rocket, ESA approached SpaceX to launch four Galileo communication satellites on two Falcon 9 rockets in 2024, however it would require approval from the European Commission and all member states of the European Union to proceed.

Cooperation with other space agencies
Since China has invested more money into space activities, the Chinese Space Agency has sought international partnerships. Besides the Russian Space Agency, ESA is one of its most important partners. Both space agencies cooperated in the development of the Double Star Mission. In 2017, ESA sent two astronauts to China for two weeks sea survival training with Chinese astronauts in Yantai, Shandong.

ESA entered into a major joint venture with Russia in the form of the CSTS, the preparation of French Guiana spaceport for launches of Soyuz-2 rockets and other projects. With India, ESA agreed to send instruments into space aboard the ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. ESA is also co-operating with Japan, the most notable current project in collaboration with JAXA is the BepiColombo mission to Mercury.

International Space Station

With regard to the International Space Station (ISS), ESA is not represented by all of its member states: 11 of the 22 ESA member states currently participate in the project: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Austria, Finland and Ireland chose not to participate, because of lack of interest or concerns about the expense of the project. Portugal, Luxembourg, Greece, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Estonia and Hungary joined ESA after the agreement had been signed.

ESA takes part in the construction and operation of the ISS, with contributions such as Columbus, a science laboratory module that was brought into orbit by NASA's STS-122 Space Shuttle mission, and the Cupola observatory module that was completed in July 2005 by Alenia Spazio for ESA. The current estimates for the ISS are approaching €100 billion in total (development, construction and 10 years of maintaining the station) of which ESA has committed to paying €8 billion. About 90% of the costs of ESA's ISS share will be contributed by Germany (41%), France (28%) and Italy (20%). German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter was the first long-term ISS crew member.

ESA has developed the Automated Transfer Vehicle for ISS resupply. Each ATV has a cargo capacity of 7667 kg. The first ATV, Jules Verne, was launched on 9 March 2008 and on 3 April 2008 successfully docked with the ISS. This manoeuvre, considered a major technical feat, involved using automated systems to allow the ATV to track the ISS, moving at 27,000 km/h, and attach itself with an accuracy of 2 cm. Five vehicles were launched before the program ended with the launch of the fifth ATV, Georges Lemaître, in 2014.

As of 2020, the spacecraft establishing supply links to the ISS are the Russian Progress and Soyuz, Japanese Kounotori (HTV), and the United States vehicles Cargo Dragon 2 and Cygnus stemmed from the Commercial Resupply Services program.

European Life and Physical Sciences research on board the International Space Station (ISS) is mainly based on the European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences in Space programme that was initiated in 2001.

Facilities

 * ESA Headquarters (HQ), Paris, France
 * European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany
 * European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, Netherlands
 * European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Madrid, Spain
 * European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT), Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
 * European Astronaut Centre (EAC), Cologne, Germany
 * ESA Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN), Frascati, Italy
 * Guiana Space Centre (CSG), Kourou, French Guiana
 * European Space Tracking Network (ESTRACK)
 * European Data Relay System

Link between ESA and EU
The ESA is an independent space agency and not under the jurisdiction of the European Union, although they have common goals, share funding, and work together often. The initial aim of the European Union (EU) was to make the European Space Agency an agency of the EU by 2014. While the EU and its member states fund together 86% of the budget of ESA, it is not an EU agency. Furthermore, ESA has several non-EU members, most notably the United Kingdom which had left the EU while remaining a full member of ESA. ESA is partnered with the EU on its two current flagship space programs, the Copernicus series of Earth observation satellites and the Galileo satellite navigation system, with ESA providing technical oversight and, in the case of Copernicus, some of the funding. The EU, though, has shown an interest in expanding into new areas, whence the proposal to rename and expand its satellite navigation agency (the European GNSS Agency) into the EU Agency for the Space Programme. The proposal drew strong criticism from ESA, as it was perceived as encroaching on ESA's turf.

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text:
Embouchure

Embouchure or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is of French origin and is related to the root , 'mouth'. Proper embouchure allows instrumentalists to play their instrument at its full range with a full, clear tone and without strain or damage to their muscles.

Brass embouchure
While performing on a brass instrument, the sound is produced by the player buzzing their lips into a mouthpiece. Pitches are changed in part through altering the amount of muscular contraction in the lip formation. The performer's use of the air, tightening of cheek and jaw muscles, as well as tongue manipulation can affect how the embouchure works.

Maintaining an effective embouchure is an essential skill for any brass instrumentalist, but its personal and particular characteristics mean that different pedagogues and researchers have advocated differing, even contradictory, advice on what proper embouchure is and how it should be taught. One point on which there is some agreement is that proper embouchure is not one-size-fits-all: individual differences in dental structure, lip shape and size, jaw shape and the degree of jaw malocclusion, and other anatomical factors will affect whether a particular embouchure technique will be effective or not.

In 1962, Philip Farkas hypothesized that the air stream traveling through the lip aperture should be directed straight down the shank of the mouthpiece. He believed that it would be illogical to "violently deflect" the air stream downward at the point of where the air moves past the lips. In this text, Farkas also recommends that the lower jaw be protruded so that the upper and lower teeth are aligned.

In 1970, Farkas published a second text which contradicted his earlier writing. Out of 40 subjects, Farkas showed that 39 subjects directed the air downward to varying degrees and one subject directed the air in an upward direction at various degrees. The lower jaw position seen in these photographs shows more variation from his earlier text as well.

This supports what was written by trombonist and brass pedagogue Donald S. Reinhardt in 1942. In 1972, Reinhardt described and labeled different embouchure patterns according to such characteristics as mouthpiece placement and the general direction of the air stream as it travels past the lips. According to this later text, players who place the mouthpiece higher on the lips, so that more upper lip is inside the mouthpiece, will direct the air downwards to varying degrees while playing. Performers who place the mouthpiece lower, so that more lower lip is inside the mouthpiece, will direct the air to varying degrees in an upward manner. In order for the performer to be successful, the air stream direction and mouthpiece placement need to be personalized based on individual anatomical differences. Lloyd Leno confirmed the existence of both upstream and downstream embouchures.

More controversial was Reinhardt's description and recommendations regarding a phenomenon he termed a "pivot". According to Reinhardt, a successful brass embouchure depends on a motion wherein the performer moves both the mouthpiece and lips as a single unit along the teeth in an upward and downward direction. As the performer ascends in pitch, he or she will either move the lips and mouthpiece together slightly up towards the nose or pull them down together slightly towards the chin, and use the opposite motion to descend in pitch. Whether the player uses one general pivot direction or the other, and the degree to which the motion is performed, depends on the performer's anatomical features and stage of development. The placement of the mouthpiece upon the lips doesn't change, but rather the relationship of the rim and lips to the teeth. While the angle of the instrument may change as this motion follows the shape of the teeth and placement of the jaw, contrary to what many brass performers and teachers believe, the angle of the instrument does not actually constitute the motion Reinhardt advised as a pivot.

Later research supports Reinhardt's claim that this motion exists and might be advisable for brass performers to adopt. John Froelich describes how mouthpiece pressure towards the lips (vertical forces) and shear pressure (horizontal forces) functioned in three test groups, student trombonists, professional trombonists, and professional symphonic trombonists. Froelich noted that the symphonic trombonists used the least amount of both direct and shear forces and recommends this model be followed. Other research notes that virtually all brass performers rely upon the upward and downward embouchure motion. Other authors and pedagogues remain skeptical about the necessity of this motion, but scientific evidence supporting this view has not been sufficiently developed at this time.

Some noted brass pedagogues prefer to instruct the use of the embouchure from a less analytical point of view. Arnold Jacobs, a tubist and well-regarded brass teacher, believed that it was best for the student to focus on his or her use of the air and musical expression to allow the embouchure to develop naturally on its own. Other instructors, such as Carmine Caruso, believed that the brass player's embouchure could best be developed through coordination exercises and drills that bring all the muscles into balance that focus the student's attention on his or her time perception. Still other authors who have differing approaches to embouchure development include Louis Maggio, Jeff Smiley, Jerome Callet and Clint McLaughlin.

Farkas embouchure
Most professional performers, as well as instructors, use a combination called a puckered smile. Farkas told people to blow as if they were trying to cool soup. Raphael Mendez advised saying the letter "M". The skin under the lower lip will be taut with no air pocket. The lips do not overlap nor do they roll in or out. The corners of the mouth are held firmly in place. To play with an extended range one should use a pivot, tongue arch and lip to lip compression.

According to Farkas the mouthpiece should have 2⁄3 upper lip and 1⁄3 lower lip (French horn), 2⁄3 lower lip and 1⁄3 upper lip (trumpet and cornet), and more latitude for lower brass (trombone, baritone, and tuba). For trumpet, some also advocate 1⁄2 upper lip and 1⁄2 lower lip. Farkas claimed placement was more important for the instruments with smaller mouthpieces. The lips should not overlap each other, nor should they roll in or out. The mouth corners should be held firm. Farkas speculated that the horn should be held in a downward angle to allow the air stream to go straight into the mouthpiece, although his later text shows that air stream direction actually is either upstream or downstream and is dependent upon the ratio of upper or lower lip inside the mouthpiece, not the horn angle. Farkas advised to moisten the outside of the lips, then form the embouchure and gently place the mouthpiece on it. He also recommended there must be a gap of 1/3 in or so between the teeth so that the air flows freely.

Arban vs. Saint-Jacome
Arban and Saint-Jacome were both cornet soloists and authors of well respected and still used method books. Arban stated undogmatically that he believed the mouthpiece should be placed 1⁄3 on the top lip. Saint-Jacome to the contrary said dogmatically that the mouthpiece should be placed "two-thirds for the upper and the rest for the under according to all professors and one-third for the upper and two-thirds for the under according to one sole individual, whom I shall not name."

Buzzing embouchure
The Farkas set is the basis of most lip buzzing embouchures. Mendez did teach lip buzzing by making the student lip buzz for a month before they could play their trumpet and got great results. One can initiate this type of buzz by using the same sensation as spitting seeds, but maintaining a continued flow of air. This technique assists the development of the Farkas approach by preventing the player from using an aperture that is too open.

Stevens–Costello embouchure
Stevens–Costello embouchure has its origins in the William Costello embouchure and was further developed by Roy Stevens. It uses a slight rolling in of both lips and touching evenly all the way across. It also uses mouthpiece placement of about 40–50% top lip and 50–60% lower lip. The teeth will be about 1/4 to 1/2 in apart and the teeth are parallel or the jaw slightly forward.

There is relative mouthpiece pressure to the given air column. One exercise to practice the proper weight to air relationship is the palm exercise where the player holds the horn by laying it on its side in the palm of the hand, not grasping it. The lips are placed on the mouthpiece and the player blows utilizing the weight of the horn in establishing a sound.

Maggio embouchure
A puckered embouchure, used by most players, and sometimes used by jazz players for extremely high "screamer" notes. Maggio claimed that the pucker embouchure gives more endurance than some systems. Carlton MacBeth is the main proponent of the pucker embouchure. The Maggio system was established because Louis Maggio had sustained an injury which prevented him from playing. In this system the player cushions the lips by extending them or puckering (like a monkey). This puckering enables the players to overcome physical malformations. It also lets the player play for an extended time in the upper register. The pucker can make it easy to use to open an aperture. Much very soft practice can help overcome this. Claude Gordon was a student of Louis Maggio and Herbert L. Clarke and systematized the concepts of these teachers. Claude Gordon made use of pedal tones for embouchure development as did Maggio and Herbert L. Clarke. All three stressed that the mouthpiece should be placed higher on the top lip for a more free vibration of the lips.

Tongue-controlled embouchure
This embouchure method, advocated by a minority of brass pedagogues such as Jerome Callet, has not yet been sufficiently researched to support the claims that this system is the most effective approach for all brass performers.

Advocates of Callet's approach believe that this method was recommended and taught by the great brass instructors of the early 20th century. Two French trumpet technique books, authored by Jean-Baptiste Arban and Saint-Jacome, were translated into English for use by American players. According to some, due to a misunderstanding arising from differences in pronunciation between French and English, the commonly used brass embouchure in Europe was incorrectly interpreted. Callet attributes this difference in embouchure technique as the reason the great players of the past were able to play at the level of technical virtuosity which they did, although the increased difficulty of contemporary compositions for brass seem to indicate that the level of brass technique achieved by today's performers equals or even exceeds that of most performers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Callet's method of brass embouchure consists of the tongue remaining forward and through the teeth at all times. The corners of the mouth always remain relaxed, and only a small amount of air is used. The top and bottom lips curl inward and grip the forward tongue. The tongue will force the teeth, and subsequently the throat, wide open, supposedly resulting in a bigger, more open sound. The forward tongue resists the pressure of the mouthpiece, controls the flow of air for lower and higher notes, and protects the lips and teeth from damage or injury from mouthpiece pressure. Because of the importance of the tongue in this method many refer to this as a "tongue-controlled embouchure". This technique facilitates the use of a smaller mouthpiece and larger bore instruments. It results in improved intonation and stronger harmonically related partials across the player's range.

Flute embouchure
A variety of transverse flute embouchures are employed by professional flautists, though the most natural form is perfectly symmetrical, the corners of the mouth relaxed (i.e. not smiling), the lower lip placed along and at a short distance from the embouchure hole. It must be stressed, however, that achieving a symmetrical, or perfectly centred blowing hole ought not to be an end in itself. Indeed, French flautist Marcel Moyse did not play with a symmetrical embouchure.

The end-blown xiao, kaval, shakuhachi and hocchiku flutes demand especially difficult embouchures, sometimes requiring many lessons before any sound can be produced.

The embouchure is an important element to tone production. The right embouchure, developed with "time, patience, and intelligent work", will produce a beautiful sound and a correct intonation. The embouchure is produced with the muscles around the lips: principally the orbicularis oris muscle and the depressor anguli oris, whilst avoiding activation of zygomaticus major, which will produce a smile, flattening the top lip against the maxillary (upper jaw) teeth. Beginner flute-players tend to suffer fatigue in these muscles, and notably struggle to use the depressor muscle, which necessarily helps to keep the top lip directing the flow of air across the embouchure hole. These muscles have to be properly warmed up and exercised before practicing. Tone-development exercises including long notes and harmonics must be done as part of the warm up daily.

Some further adjustments to the embouchure are necessary when moving from the transverse orchestral flute to the piccolo. With the piccolo, it becomes necessary to place the near side of the embouchure hole slightly higher on the lower lip, i.e. above the lip margin, and greater muscle tone from the lip muscles is needed to keep the stream/pressure of air directed across the smaller embouchure hole, particularly when playing in higher piccolo registers.

Reed instrument embouchure
With the woodwinds, aside from the flute, piccolo, and recorder, the sound is generated by a reed and not with the lips. The embouchure is therefore based on sealing the area around the reed and mouthpiece. This serves to prevent air from escaping while simultaneously supporting the reed, allowing it to vibrate, and constrict the reed preventing it from vibrating too much. With woodwinds, it is important to ensure that the mouthpiece is not placed too far into the mouth, which would result in too much vibration (no control), often creating a sound an octave (or harmonic twelfth for the clarinet) above the intended note. If the mouthpiece is not placed far enough into the mouth, no sound will be generated, as the reed will not vibrate.

The standard embouchures for single reed woodwinds like the clarinet and saxophone are variants of the single lip embouchure, formed by resting the reed upon the bottom lip, which rests on the teeth and is supported by the chin muscles and the buccinator muscles on the sides of the mouth. The top teeth rest on top of the mouthpiece. The manner in which the lower lip rests against the teeth differs between clarinet and saxophone embouchures. In clarinet playing, the lower lip is rolled over the teeth and corners of the mouth are drawn back, which has the effect of drawing the upper lip around the mouthpiece to create a seal due to the angle at which the mouthpiece rests in the mouth. With the saxophone embouchure, the lower lip rests against, but not over, the teeth as in pronouncing the letter "V" and the corners of the lip are drawn in (similar to a drawstring bag). With the less common double-lip embouchure, the top lip is placed under (around) the top teeth, an alternative embouchure sometimes recommended by dentists for single-reed players for whom the single-lip approach is potentially harmful. In both instances, the position of the tongue in the mouth plays a vital role in focusing and accelerating the air stream blown by the player. This results in a more mature and full sound, rich in overtones.

The double reed woodwinds, the oboe and bassoon, have no mouthpiece. Instead the reed is two pieces of cane extending from a metal tube (oboe – staple) or placed on a bocal (bassoon, English horn). The reed is placed directly on the lips and then played like the double-lip embouchure described above. Compared to the single reed woodwinds, the reed is very small and subtle changes in the embouchure can have a dramatic effect on tuning, tone and pitch control.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Embouchure


text:
Talk:Embouchure

Untitled
Some text in this article doesn't make complete sense, maybe resulting from the use of embouchure for a technique as well as the mouthpiece.

When the article states that the reason brass players do not use the "correct" embouchure it attributes this to the technique being "lost with the passage of time." But it then details the correct procedure, and lists a player who teaches it. (Just one teacher in the entire world who teaches it?) If this is the "correct" technique why do other players not use it?

Also surely the reason "few (if any) players (students or professors) ... play with the qualities of the great players of the past century" is subjective, maybe they were just better players? -- sodium

Yes, this is puzzling. We can infer from the information supplied in the article that it is not written from the neutral point of view: supposing, as the last sentence says, that there is only one person in the world, Jerome Callet, who is teaching the allegedly correct technique, and supposing (reasonably) that other music teachers are very concerned about what "correct" embouchure might be and that they try to teach it, we can infer that the other music teachers would disagree that the technique described as "correct" is, in fact, correct. Hence, our describing it as "correct" is decidedly biased!

So, how shall we fix the article? --LMS -- Word! I am glad that I inspired some debate about this! I realize that I could written much more; my hands were getting tired! Maybe I need a new typing embouchure!!!

To respond: Lost w/ the passage of time:

The original trumpet method books 1st translated into English in the beginning of the century were two: 1-Arban's, and 2-St. Jacome's. The French language includes a slight "lisp" in the pronunciation of the syallable "tu." In French, "tu" is pronounced "thu." Say "thu" and see where your toungue is. Voila, as they say, between your teeth! However, "classical" players in the US who started using these method books translated it as "tu." This syllable makes the toungue shoot forward and then receded. Arban states in his book "The phrase "coup de langue" {strike of toungue} is a misnomer; the toungue does not strike anything." The correct action is more like spitting; Miles Davis refers to it as "spitting a piece of rice off of your toungue" in his autobiography. In fact, as a beginner brass player, it is easier to produce a tone right away saying the syllable "tu." It is more difficult as a beginner to learn to play w/ the toungue through the teeth; it is even more difficult to change from behind the teeth to through the teeth!" Most of the "jazz" (big band) players played with the through the teeth embouchure.  This method was passed down through big bands, r&b bands, chitlin' circuit, etc.  Once all of these opportunities were lost, and "jazz" players started going to "music schools" instead of getting into road bands (late 1960's, early 1970's) was this method truly lost for the most part, as jazz players started learning the classical technique of the mistranslation of the origignal method books.  Most of the great players played by "feel"; they could not explain what they were doing; they simply did it.  Maynard Ferguson could not teach his own son the trumpet!

What makes a player great? One must listen to recordings of the players whose names I mentioned. You may then listen to recordings of Dave Douglas, Roy Hargrove, Tim Hagans, and make your judgement. There is really no question. It is not a matter of saying, oh, Charlie Shavers was a "better player." There is a physiological reason why he was able to do what he did on the horn. Roy Hargrove is an incredibly MUSICAL person; his limitation is the physics of how he plays the horn. Listen to a record of Roy's, and then listen to one of Nicolas Payton, and hear the difference in sound, attack, range, intonation, etc.

I'm sure you can find other people other than Jerome Callet who can teach this. But: good luck! I never have! Like I said, most people that play like this claim to play "by feel." The subject is just not talked about. People are afraid to talk about trumpet embouchure, and those that do, almost never can play like the people I mentioned in the article.

In addition, Wynton Marsalis, the "leading authority" on trumpet nowadays, also plays with his toungue through his teeth, but his equipment (too large a mouthpiece and too heavy a horn), unnecessary tension in the corners of his mouth/lips, and use of too much air, hold him back from entering the ranks of the truly great players of the 20th Century (innovation also has been used as a measuring stick before as well!......)

I hope that clears up some questions you had; feel free to post or email others to

djmush1

You obviously know a great deal more than me about this, and I think a lot of your reply would be useful in the entry. However there are still problems, which I am sure will be resolved. The technique is "correct" in the sense that modern musicians use a mis-translated form. However it is not right to call the technique definitively correct, as in the article. Even if the most commonly used embouchure originated out of a mistranslation, the majority of players have not switched to the original form--it must have something going for it. For the same reason, the reason for a player's greatness is subjective. If everybody agreed that it was down to the embouchure then, again, wouldn't all the players of today switch to it? -- sodium

Yes, djmush1, with all due respect, I think you've missed the point. You might, for all we know, be perfectly justified in believing that this embouchure is, in some sense, "correct." But Wikipedia has a neutrality policy: neutral point of view. Since many brass players would evidently disagree with you that this technique should be unequivocally described as "correct," we shouldn't say it is--it's not our place to instruct them that it is!

BTW, I hate this practice of writing endlessly on the /Talk page without changing the text. The problem is, I don't know much at all about this topic so I can't really fix it myself very well, short of just moving the offending text temporarily to this /Talk page, which (in this case) I am loath to do! --LMS

I tweaked the text a little bit, and feel it is objective and ok now. However, anyone truly interested in this subject would probably also benefit from the additional info on this talk page....

...as for most brass players believing whether this embouchure is "correct," this is the gray area, in which truly, embouchure is really not taught at all in this country. Although most players struggle and do not attain acceptable results w/ the common form of brass embouchure today, no alternative is taught, and most players go from teacher to teacher, trying to figure this out....when presented with this information, most contemporary brass players do not disagree that this technique is "correct" (although I have refrained from using this terminology in the entry)...their reason for not changing is that it is extremely challenging to go from one technique to the other (and this is a euphemism!), and there is a psychological fear of losing what little technique or ability one may have, and be "lost at sea" until one masters the new technique....this is the true reason, not b/c there is a disagreement over what is "correct"....when one listens to the recordings of the people on that page, what is "correct" is not really up for debate....-djMush1

Comments on Wikipedia Embouchure Article
I have several questions and comments for the author of the article on "embouchure."

1. The article stated, "Although the original technique was used intuitively by great players of the past century, contemporary music schools teach the mistranslated embouchure, which has become the dominant form today." What are the author's sources that this technique was used by the list of players of the 20th Century? In my research I have not come across anything that even remotely suggests this.

2. Also in the article the author stated, "This technique [the common embouchure method] tends to require a large mouthpiece as well as a small or medium bore instrument to produce a reasonably full sound, and often results in sore and tired lips." I notice the use of the modifiers "often" and "tends" with the statement. Regardless, this statement is still misleading. It is pretty well established that problems with playing endurance are not caused by the common brass embouchure method itself, but through improper playing mechanics which the "common embouchure method" strives to eliminate. Many performers who utilize a more traditional approach play on smaller mouthpieces and larger bore equipment and many performers who do use larger mouthpieces with smaller bore instruments do so successfully.

3. At the current time I do not have access to my copy of the Arban text the author cites as evidence that Callet's method is the "original embouchure" for brass instruments. Would it be possible to have a reference to the page number and edition the article author is referring to? My recollection of this text suggests to me that the author may be making several erroneous assumptions that Arban actually was advocating Callet's method.

4. The majority of successful brass players, from orchestral style performers to jazz performers, do not actually perform using Callet's method. While this approach to brass embouchure certainly deserves more attention from academia, to this date there is little or no scientific research supporting the article author's claims that Callet's method is actually correct. In fact, research done as early as the 1940s through contemporary research suggests the opposite of the author's claims that Callet's method is the "correct" one.

Resent research using a scientific approach and methods capable of replication support the view that successful brass playing relies upon each performing learning to work with individual anatomical differences. Some of this research suggests that performing successfully using Callet's method requires the individual possess short enough lower teeth and a thick enough lower lip so that the tongue contact with the lower lip doesn't impede the necessary vibrations. In other words, some individuals who possess the facial characteristics conducive to this technique can utilize Callet's approach effectively, but most performers are likely to find other, more traditional, approaches more effective.

In the discussion related to this article it was asked, "So, how shall we fix the article? --LMS"

With all due respect to the article author, the article in question is not encyclopedic in that it is biased and poorly researched. While there is definitely a need for more research to check the validity of Callet's and his supporter's claims, their views represent a small minority of what brass performers and teachers actually do and teach. In order for the article to be complete and more representative of what has been scientifically established much more needs to be included. If that is not possible, due to length restrictions, then the article should take a more descriptive tone, rather than merely state a subjective opinion. If article length is not an issue, simply adding material written by other authors that offer different viewpoints would make this a much more useful resource.

Dr. David Wilken Assistant Professor of Music University of North Carolina at Asheville dwilken@unca.edu

- I, being a student of the music and a trumpet player who has fallen on hard times physically, have studied various embouchures so I'd like to add a few things to this article.

Firstly, Jerome Callet is NOT the only person teaching this embouchure. If you look to Callet's site, www.callet.com, you'll find a biography on his life and what he's done. His story includes years of struggling on the trumpet even after study with many teachers, though he never says who, and as a result sets out to research embouchures and embouchure techniques. If you would like to find other teachers of the method, simply call Mr Callet and ask if he knows any teachers in your immediate area, because that's exactly what I did and was immediately given someone to call. Mr Callet does a fair amount of teaching and as a result there are many others out there that he has taught who also teach this method. In Callet's publications he often writes about other trumpet players who describe concepts in the same way as he does, that is, to play you "spit a hair off your tongue, only the hair never leaves". When he refers to Arban's, I myself have the version annotated by Claude Gordon, on pg 7 on the section referring to the "Attack" of the note, he notes to "Always remember that the phrase coup de langue (stroke of tongue) is merely a conventional expression. The tongues does not strike; on the contrary, it performs a retrograde movement, simply behaving like a valve." (The Authentic Edition - Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, 7)

Later, Gordon, as a footnote to "The tongue should then advance against the teeth of the upper jaw in such a way" in the section on Breathing, writes:

Notice that Arban did not say the tip of the tongue, rather 'The tongue should advance...in such a way...' The tip stays back of the lower teeth. The part of the tongue advancing against the teeth of the upper jaw is that part directly behind the tip. Alessandro Liberatis in his book Method for Cornet stated that the tip of the tongue should never rise above the lower teeth. Using the tongue in this manner gives a 'to and fro movement,' mentioned in the explantory notes regarding triple tonguing (p.153, para. 5-6) and double tonguing (p.154, para. 2).

Though Gordon tells the reader to keep their tongue BEHIND the teeth, the placement of the tongue in this manner still retains the same tongue controlled embouchure characteristics as Callet teaches, since my understanding of the embouchure and learnings of it have led me to believe it is the tongue compressing the air between the upper teeth/roof of the mouth and the tongue itself that creates the required air speed for notes using a lower amount of air.

The musician Alessandro Liberati mentioned by Gordon here, is also mentioned by Callet in his newest book, Trumpet Secrets, in which he states that:

In 1927 Alessandro Liberati, the great cornet soloist, taught one of my friends how to use his tongue through the teeth when playing. I of course, asked him how Liberati played. He said Liberati was as strong up to high F's above high C as any of the players in New York. Amazingly, at the time my friend hear him play, Liberati was so severly crippled by arthritis that my friend had to get under Liberati's arms to lift his overcoat over the old man's shoulders, as he could not raise his arms to pun on the garment unassisted. Alessandro Liberati died only a few months later; he was in his eighties! (Trumpet Secrets - Jerome Callet & Bahb Civiletti, 27)

Amongst the players he mentions in the book, besides Liberati, are Roy Eldridge, Harry James, Charlie Shavers, Fats Navarro, and Jules Levy. In his book, Callet also includes a few pages of Levy's method book in which Levy tells his reader to spit off a hair off their tongue.

Furthermore, recent comments have led me to believe that the TCE is in actuality a flute embouchure. The recent success of flute players who apply the Callet method to flute playing and remarks made by Arban himself in the opening section of his method book both indicate this. Arban says in the preface to his book that " I performed the flute tonguing in double staccato, also the triple staccato, which I am the first to have applied to the cornet." Meaning that the TCE is the same embouchure uesd by Arban and probably any other player Arban taught as he was not only a pioneer in the field of trumpet player but a teacher at the only existing military music school which is now the French music conservatory (in Paris, I believe, but am not perfectly positive.) If this is true, then the Callet embouchure is the one played with by many of the musicians in the past and as Callet says has been lost due to the passage of time, and perhaps may even be deemed the correct one. HOWEVER, this point is more a personal opinion and is not a matter of fact, though it is very close to being one.

On another note, I would like to mention another section of embouchures. It more of a subsection, since embouchures can be generally be defined as lip controlled or tongue controlled. In the lip controlled section, in my opinion, there should be two subsections, flat chinned and non flat chinned.

My attempt to differentiate the two embouchures, goes as follows:

The flat chinned embouchure involves the tightening/loosening of the corners of the mouth to stretch/relax the lips so that high/low pitches can be obtained. Characteristics of this embouchure include but are not limited to: a smiling look while playing, tension at the very corners of the mouth. The analogies used by teachers of this method usually involve relating the lips to an elastic and the tightening and loosening of the elastic in attempt to control pitch changes when it is plucked.

The non flat chinned embouchure involves the clamping or pinching of the lips together in order to create higher resistance at the point in which the air stream travels to create higher notes and the relaxing of that area for lower notes. Characteristics of this embouchure include but are not limited to: a mean and aggressive look while playing, air pockets in the lower and/or upper lips, puffed cheeks (most notably like Dizzy Gillespie).

The distinction between flat and non flat chins was made to me by Jeff Smiley, the creator of the Balanced Embouchure, though is not the only one to make it, in his book The Balanced Embouchure. Smiley's method would fall under the category of non flat chinned embouchures but it is not completely lip controlled or tongue controlled since it is balanced. Smiley believes in the perfect co-ordination of all the parts the embouchure to create the most efficient working embouchure.

It is my belief that most professional players use a balanced embouchure which is the result of going through Smiley's method though they may obtain it otherwise. So for all those who do not use a TCE, take a moment and ask yourself whether or not you use a BE because it may just be so.

I hope that is enlightening to those who have not studied the lesser known embouchures and methods out there.

P. Mach, renegade_philosopher@sympatico.ca

- When I read this article, I could identify which method the writer personally preferred. That indicates to me that this article does not follow NPOV.

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4/26/06

I fail to see why something used by less than 5% of all brass players should get this much attention. Most of the brass players who have played in the last 60 years have used the Farkas embouchure. Even The Maggio, Stevens, and Buzzing embouchures are all historically more relevant than TCE and they comprise a vastly larger share of those who play brass instruments. I saw no real mention of any of those embouchures.

I am not against mentioning the TCE but I feel that the way it is being mentioned is extremely misleading. An encyclopedia is NOT the place for conjecture such as dead players who MAY have used it.

I added a section for Farkas, Maggio and Stevens embouchure and deleted the claims about the players who had past away and we can't ask if they approve of being used to establish some credibility.

It was reverted in less than a day.

There is now a case number for this section. [Ticket#2006042310013237]

Clint McLaughlin

-

4/30/06

I see that someone put the changes back up. I know it isn't perfect but with the other embouchures mentioned it seems to be a more neutral point of view.

If anyone has a better way to do this and keep it balanced please work on it.

Clint McLaughlin

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It says at the beginning of the article, that the word "embouchure" refers to the mouthpiece itself. Myself, being a woodwind player, has never encountered this meaning of the word. Can anyone verify this?

Max Frank

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Hydraulophone: spam?
Is the hydraulophone content really relevant to this article? I think they are cool and all, but the use of the term seems a stretch, and the notability questionable (for this article).Ccrrccrr (talk) 14:48, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

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Merger proposal — Single- and double-lip embouchure
I propose we merge single-lip embouchure and double-lip embouchure into embouchure. Both stubs are already covered almost word-for-word by this larger article, and having these two embouchures singled out as separate articles despite having little significance in their own right/having knowledge of embouchure as a prerequisite doesn't fit into WP:SS. — Preceding unsigned comment added by VendettaCalls (talk • contribs) 04:10, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Embouchure


text:
Elephant 6

The Elephant 6 Recording Company is a loosely defined musical collective from the United States. Notable bands associated with the collective include The Apples in Stereo, Beulah, Circulatory System, Elf Power, The Minders, Neutral Milk Hotel, of Montreal, and The Olivia Tremor Control. Although bands in Elephant 6 explore many different genres, they have a shared interest in psychedelic pop of the 1960s, with particular influence from bands such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Zombies. Their music sometimes features intentionally low fidelity production and experimental recording techniques.

The collective started in Ruston, Louisiana in the late 1980s. The name was occasionally used to denote the home recordings made by four high school friends: Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, Jeff Mangum, and Robert Schneider. After high school, Schneider formed the Apples in Stereo; Doss, Hart, and Mangum formed the Olivia Tremor Control; and Mangum independently formed Neutral Milk Hotel. These three bands would serve as the basis for Elephant 6, and soon, many other bands joined. Athens, Georgia, and Denver, Colorado, became major hub cities, and the mid-to-late 1990s represented the peak years of activity for the collective.

Due to the confluence of new bands and the dissolution of Neutral Milk Hotel and the Olivia Tremor Control, the collective stagnated in activity in the early 2000s. A brief resurgence in the late 2000s ended with the death of Doss, and in recent years the collective has remained relatively dormant. Journalists have described Elephant 6 as an important underground music movement, and a key contributor to the emergence of alternative rock and indie rock in the 1990s.

Background and formation
Noel Murray and Marcus Gilmer of The A.V. Club note the difficulty in defining the exact parameters of the collective due to the multitude of associated acts. Each act has their own unique sound, and musicians are often members of multiple bands. This problem is compounded by the fact that members will sometimes obfuscate the truth, such as misleading a Rolling Stone reporter into believing they lived in a communal compound in Athens. In 2012, the official Elephant 6 website read: "A collective, a label ... a cult? Elephant 6 may be all of these things or none of these depending on your point of view. And we're certainly not going to try to define what it is now!"

Elephant 6 originated in Ruston, Louisiana, in the late 1980s. The name was occasionally used to denote home recordings made by four high school friends: Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, Jeff Mangum, and Robert Schneider. These recordings were circulated between the four of them, and they did not seek approval from record labels or fanzines. Musician Laura Carter said: "They were just 13-year-old boys yelling, 'Fuck your mama,' and bashing on the drums as hard as they can. It was just kids having fun, and they would fill up a whole cassette tape with this." When the group decided to create an imaginary label for their music, Hart came up with the name Elephant 6.

When the four friends graduated high school, they dispersed to different cities in the United States, but continued to mail tapes to each other. Schneider moved to Denver, Colorado and formed a band called the Apples in 1992 with Jim McIntyre, Hilarie Sidney and Chris Parfitt. Doss, Hart, and Mangum moved to Athens, Georgia. The three were drawn to the city's burgeoning music scene, and played in a band called the Synthetic Flying Machine. While in Athens, the group began collaborating with New York musician Julian Koster. In 1993, the Synthetic Flying Machine evolved into a band called the Olivia Tremor Control, and the band gained local attention for their psychedelic sound, which was in contrast to the prevalent grunge sound of the 1990s.

In the 1990s, bands joined Elephant 6 through invitation. Inspired by the Surrealist Manifestos, members of the collective issued their own manifesto in small hand-drawn catalogs, found within early releases. According to Schneider: "We wanted [to find] these little pockets of people in different cities who listened to Pavement and the Beach Boys and were recording on 4-tracks." Schneider notes that another way a band may join is by simply having a similar sound. He uses Beulah as an example, and in reference to the band's sound, he said: "This is a kindred spirit. This is Elephant 6."

Schneider created a record label called the Elephant 6 Recording Company as a vehicle for the Apples music, and in 1993, the first recording released on the label was an extended play titled Tidal Wave. Around this time, Mangum left the Olivia Tremor Control, and became a vagabond. While living in Seattle, Mangum released the song "Everything Is" on Cher Doll Records in 1994, and was the first member of the collective to have their music released on a mainstream label, although the release was not directly affiliated with the Elephant 6 collective and did not feature the Elephant 6 logo. Mangum released the song under the name Neutral Milk Hotel. The Apples were later known as the Apples in Stereo.

Peak years
The mid-to-late 1990s saw the greatest amount of activity for the collective. The three main bands associated with Elephant 6 at the time–the Apples in Stereo, the Olivia Tremor Control, and Neutral Milk Hotel–grew in popularity, and each respectively released a notable album: Fun Trick Noisemaker, Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle, and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. The A.V. Club wrote highly of In the Aereoplane Over the Sea, saying it "is the culmination of everything the [Elephant 6] collective was about in the mid-'90s: distinctive, ragged, catchy records ripped straight from their makers' veins."

Many bands associated with the collective were formed during this period, and Athens became a major hub city. Elf Power, of Montreal, and Doss' solo project the Sunshine Fix were among the more notable Athens based groups. of Montreal frontperson Kevin Barnes said: "The heyday, most of the late 1990s, everyone was involved in each others lives, and we would collaborate more, have dinners where everyone would make something." Schneider compares this period to the Summer of Love, and said the driving force for many of the bands was "out-weirding [their] neighbor" with their music. Elephant 6 bands would tour with each other, the larger bands allowed the smaller bands to open for them.

Denver was the smaller of the two hub cities. In addition to the Apples in Stereo, the major bands from Denver were the Minders, Dressy Bessy, and McIntyre's solo project Von Hemmling. The main draw for Elephant 6 bands in Denver was Pet Sounds Studio, a recording studio Schneider built in McIntyre's house. Many Elephant 6 albums were recorded at Pet Sounds, and were produced by Schneider. In addition to the two main hub cities, Elephant 6 bands began forming in various cities in the United States, such as the Essex Green and the Ladybug Transistor in Brooklyn, and Beulah in San Francisco.

Inactivity
In the early 2000s, Elephant 6 stagnated in activity. Neutral Milk Hotel member and the Gerbils frontman Scott Spillane identifies the sudden uptick of bands across the country as an important factor to this period. "At the time the Elephant 6 thing was getting out of hand, and we started seeing all of these bands that had little Elephant 6 logos on them all over the place" said Spillane. Bands began to tour more often, and the members had less time to interact with each other. Additionally, Neutral Milk Hotel and the Olivia Tremor Control went on hiatus. Mangum became reclusive as he struggled to cope with his newfound stardom, while the members of the Olivia Tremor Control wanted to record their own solo music.

Beulah member Pat Noel said many bands were dismayed at how journalists would "pigeonhole" them to the collective. "We kind of made a conscious decision to distance ourselves a little bit from the whole thing." Schneider took a break from producing albums, and the final album to be affixed with the Elephant 6 Recording Company logo was Cul-De-Sacs and Dead Ends by the Minders in 1999. The collective slowly dissipated, although bands like the Apples in Stereo, Elf Power, and of Montreal continued making music throughout the 2000s.

Brief reemergence
The collective was relatively dormant until the release of New Magnetic Wonder, a 2007 album by the Apples in Stereo. New Magnetic Wonder featured all four of the collective's originating members. While recording the album, they discussed new ideas, which in turn facilitated a need to make more music. The following year, Koster organized the "Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour," a short concert tour that featured fifteen artists and ten Elephant 6 bands. Koster said "Elephant 6 is back," and added: "Somehow, everything's happening for us now. I don't know why we were ever interrupted, and why all this is happening now. But we're all just so happy." The Olivia Tremor Control reunited in 2009, and Mangum returned to the public eye with solo concerts over the next few years.

On July 30, 2012, Doss died from a reported aneurysm. His death came as a shock to the collective, and stalled nearly all recordings at the time. Schneider said: "I can't say what it means for the Elephant 6 or the Apples ... On a musical level it's too soon to say. I mean, I don't want to say definitively that I don't want to make music again, but on a musical level there's no way to come to terms with the loss." The Olivia Tremor Control continued making music, and in 2017 Schneider confirmed he was producing unfinished recordings. Today, the Elephant 6 collective still exists, albeit on a much smaller scale. Bands like Elf Power and of Montreal continue to record music, and many bands have moved onto Elephant 6 offshoot labels such as Orange Twin Records and Cloud Recordings.

Influences and style
Elephant 6 bands explore a variety of music genres, including indie rock, synth-pop, and twee pop. A common interest for nearly every associated band, however, is psychedelic pop of the 1960s. Bands such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Zombies are important influences for Elephant 6 groups like the Apples in Stereo, Beulah, and the Olivia Tremor Control. Elephant 6's de facto leader Robert Schneider notes the particular influence of the Beach Boys' unfinished album Smile, calling it the "Holy Grail" for many members of the collective. He notes how he and other members were obsessed with Beach Boys albums, and attempted to create the type of music they felt would have been included in Smile.

Most Elephant 6 members are anti-consumerism and possess a DIY ethic. Their music sometimes features intentionally low quality production, and bands may experiment with unique recording methods; for example, Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle features recording techniques such as tape manipulation and sound collages. Schneider notes his hatred of both indie music and modern pop music, and said that his vision for Elephant 6 is a "perfect pop world," untarnished by commercial interests.

Impact
Several journalists regard Elephant 6 as an important underground music movement, and a key contributor to the alternative rock and indie rock explosion in the 1990s. Lee M. Shook Jr. of Paste wrote: "The Elephant 6 Recording Company would raise the bar for wide-scale countercultural activity and underground pop art—both musical, visual and otherwise—well into the 21st century." Tom Murphy of Westword expanded on this statement, by writing: "It became a movement of sorts because the music was so accessible and inclusive of a wide range of musical expression, allowing for immediate and enduring growth, however loose the association."

The collective has influenced many indie rock bands, including Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, and Tame Impala. Chris Chu of the Canadian band the Morning Benders said: "Elephant 6 was the gateway for me. They seemed to be bridging that tradition from the 60s to a more modern, more indie approach. It was exactly what I was looking for, a new take on that stuff."

Documentary
In 2022 a documentary was released called A Future History Of: The Elephant 6 Recording Co. On RottenTomatoes the film currently has a 100% positive review rate.

Associated acts
The official Elephant 6 website lists forty-seven acts associated with the collective, although Shook Jr. reports there are more than fifty. Among the collective's more notable acts include: • Air-Sea Dolphin

• The Apples in Stereo

• Bablicon

• Beulah

• Black Swan Network

• Chocolate USA

• Circulatory System

• Dressy Bessy

• Elf Power

• The Essex Green

• Fablefactory

• The Gerbils

• Great Lakes

• A Hawk and a Hacksaw

• The High Water Marks

• The Instruments

• Kingsauce

• The Ladybug Transistor

• The Late B.P. Helium

• Major Organ and the Adding Machine

• Marbles

• Marshmallow Coast

• Midget and Hairs

• The Minders

• The Music Tapes

• Neutral Milk Hotel

• of Montreal

• The Olivia Tremor Control

• Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't

• Secret Square

• The Sunshine Fix

• Thee American Revolution

• Ulysses

• Von Hemmling

title: Elephant 6


text:
Echolocation

Echolocation is the use of sound as a form of navigation.

Navigation using sound

 * Acoustic location, the general use of sound to locate objects.
 * Animal echolocation, non-human animals emitting sound waves and listening to the echo in order to locate objects or navigate.
 * Human echolocation, the use of sound by people to navigate.
 * Sonar (sound navigation and ranging), the use of sound on water or underwater, to navigate or to locate other watercraft, usually by submarines.
 * Echo sounding, listening to the echo of sound pulses to measure the distance to the bottom of the sea, a special case of Sonar.
 * Medical ultrasonography, the use of ultrasound echoes to look inside the body.

Other

 * Echolocation (album), a 2001 album by Fruit Bats
 * Echolocation, a 2017 album by Gone Is Gone

title: Echolocation