A mission is travel for work for which ESA has agreed to cover the costs. It is generally provided for ESA Staff Members and Integrated Teams upon request and acceptance by one's Line Manager and Head of Department.
Missions to attend the YPE should be possible for ESA Graduate Trainees (EGTs) (formerly Young Graduate Trainees), National Trainees (NTs), Research Fellows (RFs) and Junior Professionals (JPs) upon request and acceptance by your Line Manager.
A formal communication has previously been sent by HR to all the directorates informing them about the YPE and kindly requesting them to allow their young professionals to attend the event with a mission covered by their department.
Should your manager not approve your mission request, contact Andrew Kane for help.
Below is a guide on how to request a mission. Before stepping into the mission approval system, make sure you have discussed it with your line manager and confirmed how many days/nights can be covered by your department for the mission.
Directorates have been asked to allow us to prepare a mission to HQ and cover the mission cost across the 2 event days. This would mean a mission to cover 1 return travel ticket and 2 hotel nights to attend the YPE, as it is a 2 day event. If you wish to stay longer, you can ask for extra nights' accommodation but this is up to your manager's discretion. It is also possible to fund additional nights yourself as part of the mission.
Disclaimer: If you are in TEC, please do not request a mission yet. There is a specific agreement being made for the missions of YPs in TEC. Please still register for YPE, but you will be receiving more information regarding the mission request once your registration has been approved.
Mission Approval System
The highlighted sections in the images are those that require your input.
Before you start using the mission approval system (MAS) make sure you check with your line manager that you can submit the mission request yourself. Some sections prefer that the missions are requested by your administrative assistant.
MAS accessible from ESA Tools: Mission Approval System - Main Page (esa.int)
or via OneESA:
Create a new request and provide the following inputs:
Budget Line: ask your manager, must be your department's budget line
Mission category: depends on your status + Conferences, Workshops and Others
Hotel and Ticket required: as per your preference. Choosing "to be booked with Travel Agency" means they will book and pay for flight/train ticket and book the hotel room. You will either have to pay the costs upon check-in at the hotel and ask for a refund afterwards or the travel agency will pay it directly ahead of your arrival. You can choose to book everything on your own, and keep the invoice for the refund process (explained at the end of the article).
Main Mission Destination: ESA HQ
Country: France
Mission Detail: Young Professional Event 2026 at ESA HQ organized by Young ESA - an event for Young Professionals across all ESA sites.
Start of Work: 01-JUN-2026 at 08:00
End of Work: 02-JUN-2026 at 18:00
Conference / Workshop: Yes
Type of transport: Train/Plane etc.
Journey / Planned Journey:
Journey: the nominal journey to reach ESA HQ and come back afterwards (the one approved by your manager)
Travel time is also considered as work time during a mission, so, upon approval by your manager, you could travel during work hours.
Here is where you state the exact train/flight you want, if you have a specific preference - you just put the exact times and the flight/train number under "Transport Detail".
Planned Journey: if you plan to come before or leave after (take some leave or stay longer) then put the "real" journey in the pop-up that comes up when you click. The travel agent will be in touch with you by email to confirm flights/train times and the hotel booking. If it goes over the quote provided by the travel office at the time of booking, you will need to cover those expenses yourself.
After you hit 'Request', the system will ask you who you want to send the request to.
Choose / add:
- Yourself
- Your line manager
- Your head of department (as agreed with your manager)
- HR: Andrew Kane andrew.kane@esa.int
- If you know it, the secretary of your department
You then have to click on "Submit for Approval" and put in:
- Your line manager
- Your head of department (as agreed with your manager)
- HR: Andrew Kane andrew.kane@esa.int
Reimbursement
You must keep all invoices and receipts for any public transport, taxis, hotel and any hotel-related costs like tourist tax, to submit them for reimbursement (can be done 24 hours after the mission end date). If you booked your own flights/trains make sure to keep the invoice for this as you will need to submit these too.
You do not need to provide any food as this is covered in the daily allowance for the mission.
Any questions?
If you have questions, concerns, or doubts at any point in this process, do not hesitate to reach out to Isabelle or Gala via email or Teams message directly. We will make sure to answer you promptly and guide you in the best way we can.
How to claim a mission?
- Go to MAS and open your ESTEC YPE mission
- Fill in the requested information
- If you suffered any delays or made any changes to your journey, then edit the Journey (Actual) table to reflect your travel
- Private Car: If you drove to the YPE in your private car then select Yes and add the mileage and passenger names
- Lunch or Dinner Offered: Yes, and specify which lunch was offered
- Hotel Excess: if your hotel cost is more than €138 per night (which is half of the Paris per diem (daily allowance)) then you need to claim Hotel Excess. Tick the box that applies to you, and fill in the required details.
- Sundry Expenses: any expenses outside of hotel and food (since food is taken into consideration in the daily allowance), this can be taxis, train/flight cost (if not already paid by the Travel office), car rental costs, and public transport costs.
- Attach the hotel receipt in the Hotel Receipts section and the other receipts using the link by each budget line. For public transport that was purchased on your phone, screenshots of bank statements are enough.
- Tick the boxes and hit Claim
- Your mission ID appears under the Claimed section.
A mission gets reimbursement approval within approximately a month of requesting it (so YPE being on June 1-2, the refund will be processed by July 1). The refund is transferred to your account a couple of days after confirmation sent to your email (unrelated to your salary date). This can take longer or be processed earlier depending on the Travel Agency workload and how early after the YPE you request the reimbursement.
If you have questions, concerns, doubts at any point in this process, do not hesitate to reach out to Isabelle or Gala via email or Teams message directly.
