ESA Ground Stations

The European Space Operations Centre is where ESA’s ground station systems are developed and operated and where the smooth working of spacecraft in orbit is ensured. Since its establishment in 1967, ESOC has planned missions, operated more than 60 satellites and ensured that spacecraft meet their mission objectives. The mandate of ESOC is to conduct mission operations for ESA satellites and to establish, operate and maintain the ground infrastructure.

Estrack is a worldwide network of ground stations providing links between satellites in orbit and the Operations Control Centre at ESOC. The core network comprises 9 stations in seven countries.

There are four types of stations in the network:

• Parabolic antennas 15 m in diameter for tracking low-Earth orbit and near-Earth orbit satellites. These antennas are located at: Kourou (French Guiana), Maspalomas and Villafranca (Spain), Redu (Belgium) and Kiruna (Sweden).

• Parabolic antennas 35 m in diameter for tracking spacecraft in deep space. Estrack has stations at New Norcia (Australia), Cebreros (Spain) and Malargüe (Argentina).

• A dedicated station on Santa Maria Island (Azores, Portugal), together with the Perth station, supports the tracking of ESA’s launch vehicles.

• A 4.5 m parabolic antenna co-located at New Norcia, Australia, to support newly launched satellites.