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Enabling & Support

Current and future missions

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ESA / Enabling & Support / Operations

The missions listed below are or will be operated from ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany.

Current missions operated from ESOC

Name Purpose Description
BepiColombo Planetary science (1) Mercury explorer
CryoSat Earth observation (1) ESA's ice mission
EarthCARE Earth observation (1) ESA's cloud, aerosol and radiation mission
Euclid Science (1) Studying dark matter and energy
ExoMars/TGO Planetary science (1) Orbiting Mars - providing crucial data relay
Gaia Science (1) Galactic surveyor
Hera Space safety (1) Europe's first planetary defence mission heading to a double-asteroid system 
Integral Science (1) Gamma-ray observatory
JUICE Planetary science (1) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer
Mars Express Planetary science (1) Europe's first Mars orbiter
Sentinel 1 Earth observation (2) Europe's Copernicus programme - Sentinel-1A, 1C (radar)
Sentinel 2 Earth observation (3) Europe's Copernicus programme - Sentinel-2A, 2B, 2C (optical)
Sentinel 5P Earth observation (1) Europe's Copernicus programme - Sentinel-5 Precursor (atmosphere) 
Solar Orbiter Science (1) Expanding our knowledge of solar physics
Swarm Earth observation (3) Geomagnetic surveyor
XMM Science (1) X-ray observatory
That's 16 missions in total, comprising 21 spacecraft.

Notes:

  1. The number in parentheses refers to the number of spacecraft in the mission.
  2. The Proba missions (Proba-1, -2, -V and Proba-3) are controlled by ESA's Operations team from ESA ESEC, Belgium.
  3. Cluster No. 2 (Salsa) reentered on 9 Sep 2024, marking the end of the mission; the remaining three satellites are being flown in 'caretaker mode' until re-entries later in 2025/26.

Future missions in preparation at ESOC

Name Purpose Description
Biomass Earth observation Measuring forest biomass
ExoMars Planetary science ExoMars rover
Flex Earth observation Fluorescence Explorer to map vegetation fluorescence & quantify photosynthetic activity
Plato Science Discover extrasolar planetary systems and terrestrial planets
Vigil Space safety Delivering real-time data on potentially hazardous solar activity

Note:

  1. Some Sentinel missions will be operated in the routine phase from ESOC, while some will be handed over to Eumetsat.
  2. The ground segment and operations concept for additional missions planned for launch later in the 2020s or early 2030s are not yet listed here. 

ESA missions operated elsewhere

These missions are operated with the support of ESA's Operations team at locations other than ESOC:

  • Proba-2 - Operated from ESA ESEC, Belgium
  • Proba-3 - Operated from ESA ESEC, Belgium
  • SMOS - ESA's Operations team is responsible for SMOS payload operations from ESA's ESAC Establishment; the mission is operated on behalf of ESA by the French space agency (CNES) from Toulouse

ESA cooperative missions operated elsewhere

Name Description Operated by
ISS - International Space Station Orbiting science lab NASA (USA) / Roscosmos (Russia)
SOHO Solar observations NASA (USA)
Hubble Space Telescope Orbiting observatory NASA (USA)
James Webb Space Telescope Orbiting observatory NASA (USA) 

For a full list of all missions operated from ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany, since inauguration in September 1967, access Mission History.