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Establishments and facilities 
There are just over 2000 specialists working for ESA and their distribution takes into account not only social and occupational categories, but also gender and the geographical spread of nationalities among the various ESA establishments.
ESA has its headquarters in Paris and specialist centres in The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain, liaison offices in Washington DC and Moscow, an office in Brussels for relations in particular with the European Commission, and a representation in French Guiana.
The European Space Research and Technology Centre at Noordwijk in The Netherlands is the largest ESA establishment, a test centre and hub for European space activities. It has responsibility for the technical preparation and management of ESA space projects and provides technical support to ESA’s ongoing satellite, space exploration and human space activities.
It is the home of ESA’s Directorates of Technical and Quality Management and of Human Spaceflight, and of the Research and Scientific Support Department.
The European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, ensures the smooth working of spacecraft in orbit. Its control rooms, linked to ground stations all over the world, track and control satellites, issuing commands for spacecraft manoeuvring, carrying out routine systems monitoring and transmitting payload operational instructions. It is the home of ESA’s Directorate of Operations and Infrastructure. Access the Site
ESA’s centre for Earth observation is in Frascati, south of Rome, Italy. It manages the ground segment for ESA and third-party Earth-observation satellites, maintaining the largest archive of environmental data in Europe, coordinating over 20 ground stations and ground-segment facilities throughout Europe and cooperating with another 20 foreign ground-segment operators worldwide.
As well as home to ESA’s Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, it hosts the project team managing the Vega small-launcher programme.
The European Astronaut Centre located in Cologne, Germany, is a training facility and home base for all European astronauts. It is a centre of excellence for astronaut training and medical support. Access the Site
The European Space Astronomy Centre, at Villanueva de la Cañada, near Madrid in Spain, hosts the scientific operations centres for ESA's astronomy and planetary missions, along with their scientific archives. It provides services to astronomical research projects worldwide. Access the Site
Kourou, in French Guiana, is Europe’s gateway to space. Covering 96 000 hectares, it has a workforce of some 1500 people, drawn mainly from the French space agency CNES, Arianespace and European industry. ESA is the owner of the launch and launcher production facilities and finances a significant part of the fixed costs of the launch base. CSG is ideally sited for launching satellites, in particular because it is close to the equator. Access the Site Last update: 26 June 2009
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