OPS-SAT's mission control

The SMILE lab – known more formally as the Special Mission Infrastructure Lab Environment – offers a flexible operations control area, a suite of small antennas and ESA’s expertise and know-how to support academia, business and start-ups in the area of mission operations.

One of the first users of the SMILE facility will be the team flying ESA’s own cubesat, OPS-SAT, a new smallsat that, following launch later this year, will be made available to European companies that need to test freshly developed and innovative on-board software, tools and techniques on an actual mission in the real conditions of space.