The European Astronaut Centre, Cologne (Germany)

The European Astronaut Centre of the European Space Agency is situated in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1990 as a result of Europe's commitment to human space programmes and is the home base of the 16 European astronauts who are members of the European Astronaut Corps.

The role of the EAC is to prepare and implement astronaut training programmes for a variety of missions. It also coordinates astronaut training between ESA and its International Space Station Programme partners