The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of unmanned spacecraft on behalf of ESA and the launch and early orbit phases (LEOP) of ESA and third-party missions.
Some examples of the missions and projects that ESOC is involved in include:
- The Galileo satellite navigation system, which is a European global navigation satellite system that provides positioning, navigation, and timing services
- The ExoMars mission, a collaboration between ESA and Roscosmos, which aims to search for signs of past and present life on Mars.
- The BepiColombo mission, a collaboration between ESA and JAXA, which aims to study the planet Mercury.
- The Gaia mission, which aims to make the largest, most precise map of our Milky Way galaxy by surveying more than a billion stars.
- The Cluster mission, which aimed to study the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind
ESOC also provides tracking and control services for a number of other satellites and missions operated by ESA and other space agencies around the world.