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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ESA operates some of the world's most sophisticated deep-space tracking stations, enabling spacecraft to maintain contact with Earth while voyaging deep into our Solar System. The essential task of all ESA stations is to communicate with our missions, sending telecommands and receiving vital scientific data and spacecraft status information.
The Agency's three Deep Space Antenna (DSA) stations are located in Australia, Spain and Argentina, and are centrally controlled from the ESOC Operations Centre in Germany. They are equipped with large, 35 m-diameter parabolic dish reflectors, weighing in at 610 tonnes, that can be rotated and pointed with extreme accuracy.
Using signal data from the stations and an advanced navigational technique known as 'delta-DOR', engineers can pinpoint the orbit of a spacecraft exploring Mars or Venus - a distance of over 100 million kilometres from Earth - to an accuracy within 1 kilometre.