The "Sea & Space" programme is carried out in connection with the 1998 European Week for Scientific and Technological Culture, an initiative by the European Commission. It is a collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE), with support of EUMETSAT, GMD (the German National Research Center for Information Technology) and NSC (the Norwegian Space Centre). Additional partners may join the programme at a later stage.

The Sea & Space programme is comprised of five interrelated sub-programmes that address some of the connections between Sea and Space in various natural ways and at different levels.