Current and future missions
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 | (1) Europe's Copernicus programme - Sentinel-1A (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 20 spacecraft. | ||
Notes:
- The number in parentheses refers to the number of spacecraft in the mission.
- The Proba missions (Proba-2 and Proba-3) are controlled by ESA's Operations team from ESA ESEC, Belgium.
- 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 |
| Sentinel-1C | Earth observation | Europe's Copernicus programme |
| Vigil | Space safety | Delivering information on potentially hazardous solar activity |
Note:
- Some Sentinel missions will be operated in the routine phase from ESOC, while some will be handed over to Eumetsat.
- 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 (launch planned in Nov 2024)
- 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.