ESA's human spaceflight missions are operated by the Agency's Operations team in partnership with other agencies.
Since February 2008, the Columbus lab has been controlled from the German Space Operations Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen by a joint ESA/German Aerospace Center (DLR) team, while the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)-series are controlled from the Centre spatial de Toulouse (CST) by a joint ESA/French space agency (CNES) team.
Operations specialists from ESA work at the ATV and Columbus Control Centres as mission directors, working tightly with engineering and support teams provided by DLR and CNES. In addition, numerous specialists working at other ESA establishments and at industry sites across Europe provide regular support and assistance.
The ISS (International Space Station) is operated from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, and Russia's TsUP Mission Control Centre, outside Moscow.
