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    ESA > About Us > ESOC

    ESA lays down the law

    ESA lays down the law

    ESA and the European Centre for Space Law will soon hold a workshop all about space debris – including debris mitigation, legislation, standards and tools – from 19 to 21 March 2019
    Innovation at ESOC

    Innovation at ESOC

    The 7th European Ground System Architecture Workshop, 21-22 May, will showcase the newest and most innovative work being done in the area of mission control.
    Protecting our Planet

    Protecting our Planet

    OUT NOW: ESA's brand-new poster series explores the Agency's mission to protect our Pale Blue Dot...
    Tough love

    Tough love

    Operations image of the week: On Valentine's Day, the message is clear - loving our planet means cleaning it up, and that includes the orbital pathways on which much of our modern way of life depends
    Where's my spacecraft?

    Where's my spacecraft?

    Operations image of the week: How not to lose a deep-space explorer? ESA uses a 'stellar' navigation technique relying on one of the Universe's most powerful energy sources
    Supermodel

    Supermodel

    Operations image of the week: Our beloved Rosetta spacecraft is spending eternity on the surface of the Solar System's most famous comet, while its trusty engineering replica is living out retirement at ESA’s operations centre
    Beckoning Moon

    Beckoning Moon

    Operations image of the week: The Moon seen rising over an antenna in the UK, soon to enter service as one of Europe's newest tracking stations to support missions to... the Moon
    ESA's detection expertise

    ESA's detection expertise

    What's the difference between monitoring asteroids in space and debris in orbit? As part of ESA's Space Safety & Security activities, the Agency brings together experts in natural and artificial object detection
    Archive

    Latest News

    ESA helps business fly in space10 March 2019

    ESA helps business fly in space10 March 2019 New ‘cubesat’ technology and falling launch costs mean that businesses, universities and other organisations are increasingly able to launch their own small satellites. Now ESA is offering facilities and know-how to help them fly.

    ESA plans mission to smallest asteroid ever visited04 February 2019

    ESA plans mission to smallest asteroid ever visited04 February 2019 ESA’s planet-defending Hera mission will set a new record in space. The asteroid investigator will not only be the first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair – but the smaller of these two worldlets, comparable in size to...

    ESA Columbus module

    Hundreds of impacts crater ESA’s Columbus science laboratory23 January 2019

    ESA Columbus module

    Hundreds of impacts crater ESA’s Columbus science laboratory23 January 2019 On 6 September 2018, the 17-metre arm attached to humankind’s most distant outpost began to move. Its instructions were to survey the spaceship’s European science laboratory for signs of impact damage from marauding bits of space rock or space debris.

    Join the #AuroraHunters17 January 2019

    Join the #AuroraHunters17 January 2019 It’s difficult to comprehend the size and sheer power of our Sun, a churning ball of hot gas 4.6 billion years old and 1.3 million times larger than Earth, which emits solar wind — the constant stream of electrons, protons and atomic particles — and r...

    Space in Europe: ESA and DLR agree on mission control cooperation19 December 2018

    Space in Europe: ESA and DLR agree on mission control cooperation19 December 2018 ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have made an agreement to pool their expertise in space operations. The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt and the German Space Operations Centre (GSOC) in Obepfaffenhofen near Munich have a...

    BepiColombo’s first routine firing in space18 December 2018

    BepiColombo’s first routine firing in space18 December 2018 On Monday this week, BepiColombo began its very first routine electric propulsion firing.

    News Archive

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    • #ESOC50
      #ESOC50
      #ESOC50From Earth orbit to deep space: In 2017, the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, celebrates 50 years as ESA's 'mission control'
    • ESOC Ground Systems Engineering
      ESOC Ground Systems Engineering
      ESOC Ground Systems EngineeringDesigning, building and maintaining infrastructure on the ground to operate missions in space
    • National news
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    • 50 years in Darmstadt
    • ESA Operations image of the week: A ghostly image of our Milky Way galaxy derived from spacecraft orientation data, developed by the mission control team at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany
      ESA Operations image of the week: A ghostly image of our Milky Way galaxy derived from spacecraft orientation data, developed by the mission control team at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany
      Operations image of the week archive
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    • Debris and defunct launcher stages seen in the Geostationary ring - from a movie produced by ESA's Space Debris Office at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany
      Debris and defunct launcher stages seen in the Geostationary ring - from a movie produced by ESA's Space Debris Office at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany
      Space Debris Office
    • Space Sitauational Awareness - Detecting space hazards
      Space Sitauational Awareness - Detecting space hazards
      SSA - Space Situational Awareness
    • Video & images
    • Ground station chillax
    • SARAS – a Spanish acronym for ‘Fast Acquisition of Satellites and Launchers’ – is a circular array of eight small radio-frequency sensors mounted around the rim of an existing dish antenna.
      SARAS – a Spanish acronym for ‘Fast Acquisition of Satellites and Launchers’ – is a circular array of eight small radio-frequency sensors mounted around the rim of an existing dish antenna.
      Tracking station gallery
    • ESA's webcam at the ESTRACK 35m deep-space station, Cebreros
      ESA's webcam at the ESTRACK 35m deep-space station, Cebreros
      Cebreros webcam
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