Katwijk and ESTEC

An aerial view of ESA's technical centre in the Netherlands, photographed next to the town of Katwijk from a Cessna in 2016. The neighbouring town of Noordwijk is visible to the top of the image.

In place for more than half a century, the ESTEC European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk on the North Sea coast is ESA’s largest establishment, focused on developing technology, planning missions and testing satellites.

The hub of our continent’s space effort, this is where the majority of European space projects are born, developed and tested in advance of their flights into orbit.