The ESA Council appointed Josef Aschbacher as the next Director General of ESA. His appointment, taken today by the ESA Council, was made official during an online press conference held by ESA's headquarters in Paris. He will succeed  Jan Wörner, whose term of office ends on 30 June 2021,  after a 6-year mandate.

Josef Aschbacher is currently ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESRIN, ESA’s centre for Earth Observation near Rome. Born in Austria, Dr Aschbacher studied at the University of Innsbruck, where he obtained Masters and PhD degrees in Natural Sciences. He has over three decades of experience working in international organisations, including ESA, the European Commission, the Austrian Space Agency and Asian Institute of Technology.

“Congratulations to Josef Aschbacher for his appointment as new ESA Director General: ASI looks forward to a close and successful collaboration. Sincere thanks to Johann-Dietrich Wörner for the excellent work accomplished during his mandate and the goals achieved for the  European Space Agency - is the comment of Giorgio Saccoccia, President of the Italian Space Agency.