The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Rolf Densing is ESA's Director of Operations (D/OPS), and Head of ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany, taking up duty on 1 January 2016.
Rolf Densing has been working in the space sector for more than 25 years. He graduated with a doctorate in physics from the University of Bonn in 1988. After completing his studies at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, he began his scientific career as Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, USA.
From 1992 to 1995, he worked as a project manager in the space science programme of the former German space agency DARA (now DLR, the German Aerospace Center). Among other things, he worked on a series of scientific missions with the German Astro-SPAS platform, which flew on several Space Shuttle missions.
In 1996, Rolf Densing took on a managerial role as US Representative in the DARA/DLR Washington Office, then three years later he moved to DLR headquarters in Cologne as Head of the Executive Office. From 2003 onwards, he headed the ESA Affairs department at the DLR Space Administration until the DLR Senate appointed him Director of Programmes in 2009.
Before joining ESA, Rolf Densing was the Director of Space Programmes at the DLR Space Administration, where he was responsible for Germany’s involvement in the ESA’s research, technology and infrastructure programmes. He contributed to national space strategy at programmatic and policy level, including the evolution of space operations centres in Germany.