The European Space Agency (ESA) has expressed its desire to further collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for space missions. This news comes after India’s historic launch of 104 satellites, in one go.

In conversation with Times of India, ESA’s Senior Scientific Advisor Mark McCaughrean, who is visiting India for the first time, said, “ESA plans further collaboration with ISRO in various space missions. Had an informal discussion with former ISRO chairman UR Rao at Bangalore. The current ISRO chairman, AS Kiran Kumar was in a meeting in Delhi that day. Earlier, ESA had collaborated with ISRO on Chandrayaan-1 mission to Moon.”

Up until now, the ESA has collaborated with 22 nations including India, China, Japan, Russia and the US in space missions. The ESA is planning 15 space missions, which will include Bepe Colombo to Mercury in 2018 and JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) to Jupiter in 2022.

While the Bepe Colombo will be the first probe to Mercury, it will also be a joint mission between ESA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). McCaughrean believes the Sun's enormous gravity poses a challenge to place the spacecraft into a stable orbit around Mercury.

On the other hand, the explorer JUICE, will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons - Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. He said, “Missions to Neptune and Uranus haven't been planned yet as it would take about 20 to 30 years to reach there.”