The website of the European Space Agency (ESA) provides users with an online access to ESA’s image and video archives, and a dedicated access to an ESA Photo Library and a Video Library for Professionals.
Images and videos available on the ESA website are protected by copyright and owned or controlled by ESA and/or third-parties. Some of these images and videos may not be fully owned by ESA and may instead be jointly owned by ESA together with third-parties or fully owned by third-parties, as indicated in the copyright notice. Nothing herein shall be construed as an authorisation from ESA to you, on behalf of any third-party, to use the images and videos available on the website.
Any use of ESA images and videos is subject to the terms and conditions detailed hereunder.
Disclaimers
ESA provides no warranties with respect to the images and videos available on the website, and in particular with regard to their fitness for a particular purpose.
ESA assumes no liability in respect of the use of any ESA images and videos, does not grant any exclusive right to the users and does not indemnify, hold harmless, nor release users from copyright infringement.
Neither ESA nor any other party involved in creating, producing or delivering the images and videos shall be liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect or punitive damages arising out of the users’ access to, or use of, the images and videos provided on the ESA website.
Educational and/or Informational Use of ESA Images and Videos
You may use, reproduce, distribute, broadcast and publicly perform ESA images and videos for educational or informational purposes (e.g. to illustrate press articles, scientific publications, etc.), free of charge and without having to request a separate authorisation from ESA, on the following conditions:
- Credit the source(s). For images, the photographer’s name shall be credited when available. For videos, copyright in the material must be recognised by an appropriate on-screen or end credit in a form such as “European Space Agency – ESA”.
Examples: “Photo: ESA”; “Photo: ESA/Cluster”; “Image: ESA/NASA – SOHO/LASCO”; “ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0”, “ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO”, “ESA/[Photographer’s name], CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO”. - No endorsement/misleading use. ESA images and videos, and adaptations thereof, shall not be used in any way that could state or imply the endorsement by ESA and/or ESA staff of any commercial product, process or service, ideology, religion, political doctrine or party, or in any other manner that could mislead third-parties as to the role of ESA.
- CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO restrictions. Where expressly so stated, some images and videos are released by ESA under a “Creative Commons Attribution –ShareAlike 3.0 IGO” (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) licence (available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode, hereinafter the “Licence”), in which case your use of the material must also comply with the conditions set forth in the Licence, which shall be binding to you.
You must, in particular:
- provide a direct link to the text of the Licence upon distributing or publicly performing the image or video;
- clearly label/identify any changes made to the original image or video when creating, reproducing, distributing or publicly performing adaptations;
- distribute or publicly perform the images or videos, or any adaptation thereof, only under the terms of the Licence.
For any enquiries concerning the use of ESA images and videos for educational or informational purposes, please contact: esa.photolibrary@esa.int
Commercial Use of ESA Images and Videos
Any use of ESA images or videos for a commercial purpose requires a written agreement by ESA.
For any request or enquiries concerning the use of ESA images and videos for commercial purposes, please contact: esa.photolibrary@esa.int
Access to the Photo Library for Professionals
In addition to material publicly available on the ESA website, professionals may be granted dedicated access, through registration, to separate Photo and Video Libraries.
For any enquiries concerning the Photo Library for Professionals, please contact: esa.photolibrary@esa.int.
Access to, and use of, the Photo Libraries for Professionals are subject to the following specific conditions:
- Registration. Registration is free of charge, and open to everyone and subject to validation. To register, the professional must fill in and submit the registration form available at https://photolibrary.esa.int/register. Registration as a professional requires to agree to these Terms and Conditions of Use of ESA Images and Videos.
- Validation of the account. Upon receipt of the registration request, the application shall be checked and validated by ESA. Upon validation, the professional will receive a confirmation of its registration and its account login credentials via email.
- Authorisation or refusal of the request. There shall be no entitlement to register on the Photo Library for Professionals. ESA may refuse registration for any reason.
Use of the ESA logo
The ESA logo is owned by ESA and protected as a trademark and under Article 6ter of the ‘Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property’. You may not modify or create derivatives of the ESA logo. Any use, reproduction, publication, display, making available to the public or exploitation of the ESA logo requires ESA’s prior written authorisation. For authorisation, please contact: corporatebranding@esa.int or visit the ESA Brand Centre at https://brand.esa.int/.
Additional terms
Without any prejudice to ESA’s status as an international intergovernmental organisation, these terms and conditions shall be construed and interpreted in accordance with the laws of France. Any dispute arising out of, or in connection with these terms and conditions that cannot be settled amicably within thirty days from the notification of the dispute by one party to the other shall be finally settled under the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce by one arbitrator appointed in accordance with the said Rules. The language of arbitration shall be English. The place of arbitration shall be Paris, France.
Images released under ESA standard licence
Most images have been released publicly from ESA. You may use ESA images or videos for educational or informational purposes. The publicly released ESA images may be reproduced without fee, on the following conditions:
- Credit ESA as the source of the images.
- Examples: Photo: ESA; Photo: ESA/Cluster; Image: ESA/NASA – SOHO/LASCO
- ESA images may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by ESA or any ESA employee of a commercial product, process or service, or used in any other manner that might mislead.
- If an image includes an identifiable person, using that image for commercial purposes may infringe that person‘s right of privacy, and separate permission should be obtained from the individual.
- Some images contained in this website have come from other sources, and this is indicated in the Copyright notice. For re-use of non-ESA images contact the designated authority.
- If ESA images are to be used in advertising or any commercial promotion, layout and copy must be submitted to ESA beforehand for approval to: spaceinimages@esa.int