Your Guide to ESOC.

Where Missions Come Alive.

Artists impression of GAIA, one of the satellites ESOC is currently operating

What is ESOC?
The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) located on the west side of Darmstadt, is the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA), controlling and carefully monitoring unmanned space missions i.e satellites. As a satellite is launched, ESOC take responsibility of that satellite. For example, ESOC locate any technical issues regarding satellites that they control and systematically solve them. When a satellite is launched in to orbit, ESOC make sure it follows a path that has been precisely calculated. A team of 80 people work on this in ESOC. The flight dynamicists calculate the exact launch time and the precise orbit for the satellite, whether it is supposed to orbit the Earth or orbit the other planets.

Personnel in Operation at ESOC:

A team of around 800 people work with ESOC, with approximately 250 permanent staff and 550 contractors. In ESOC, mission analysers, engineers, ESA navigators work together to calculate and determine orbits of satellites, along with the development and improvement of softwares used on the satellites. Staff at ESOC travel to different ESA organisations located in different countries to work on different satellites.

Every mission begins with a launch.

Most satellites for ESOC are launched in the European Space Port , South America in French Guiana. After a satellite has been launched, ESOC have direct radio contact with the satellite located in the belly of the rocket. We have a number of tracking facilities that we operate where flight data of the rocket is obtained and we can observe its ascend.

The Main Control Room (MCR) at ESOC.

Tracking Facilities.
ESTRACK, ESA's vast network of ground space-tracking stations, provides links and communications between orbiting satellites and ESOC. Six of these stations are located in Sweden, Belgium, French Guyana, Australia and Spain.

Beginnings of ESOC.
ESOC was founded by the minister of Research of Federal Republic of Germany, Gerhard Stoltenberg, on the 8th September 1967. Its purpose was to provide satellite control for the European Space Research Organisation, which today is known as the European Space Agency (ESA). ESOC employed ~90 people that had been previously allocated to the European Space Data Centre (ESDAC) where orbit calculations for satellites were made. By May 1968, the establishment of ESOC, as part of ERSO, was operating its first unmanned mission ESRO-2B.

Mission Discoveries made with the patronage of ESOC.

In 2009, the Herschel satellite discovered a starburst galaxy producing over 2000 solar masses annually. HFLS3 was born 880 million years after the big bang . According to theories of galaxy evolution, galaxies as massive as HFLS3 should not be around so early after the Big Bang. Galaxy evolution concepts are now being reconsidered. Cluster has gained information about dark regions can be seen during aurorae . Cluster has confirmed that these dark regions are phenomena that can be considered as 'anti aurora', which pulls electrons from the ionosphere.

Missions in Operation at ESOC:

Solar and planetary Venus Express (Launched November 9th 2005) ESA's first mission to explore Venus' and to understand the atmospheric dynamics. Astronomy and physics XMM-Newton (Launched 10th December 1999) is ESA's X-ray mission to study black holes and neutron stars. Earth observation Cryosat II (Launched 8th April 2010) ESA's satellite to observe polar ice and to gain a better understanding whether this is due to global warming. Mars Express (Launched June 2nd 2003) - ESA'S first planetary mission to explore the Red Planet. Mars Express is comprised in to 2 sections: Beagle 2, which is a lander designed to carry out exobiology and geochemistry research. The Mars Express Orbiter, which will orbit the planet, observing its atmosphere and map the surface of Mars. Planck (Launched May 14th 2009) is a satellite surveying the Cosmic Microwave Background, allowing us to understand what happened earlier in the Big Bang.

Rosetta (Launched March 2nd 2004) - ESA's mission to uncover mysteries of the Solar System and comets. Rosetta has been in a deep-space hibernation for 3 years. Image below shows an artist's impression of Rosetta's asteroid flyby.

Integral (Launched 17th October 2002) known as the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory is an Earth-orbiting satellite which detects high energy radiation from space. Intergral has had great success in studying gamma-ray bursts, the formation of elements and finding evidence for black holes.

Artists impression of Rosetta asteroid flybly.

Image above: The Horse Head Nebula, taken by Herschel, a satellite controlled and monitored by ESOC.

Facts:
Since its founding in 1967, ESOC has operated 60 space missions in Europe. Experts at ESOC have been able to save missions that were thought to be lost, such as Hipparcos. This satellite was able to achieve its three-year mission to map the stars in the Milky Way, even though it was positioned in the wrong orbit!

Exciting News at ESOC!

On the 19th December 2013, GAIA had a successful lift off in Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, and is currently on its way to study the origin and evolution of billions of stars in the Milky Way.

Wake up Rosetta! Rosettas 3 year

hibernation is about to end. The mission in January 2014 will consist of studying the comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko This is a model of XMM Newton, a satellite that ESOC operates. This model can be found in ESOC's grounds in Darmstadt!

Contact: ESA/ESOC Corporate Communications Office Robert-Bosch-STR. 5 64293 Darmstadt, Germany Tel: +49-(0)6151-90 2696 ESOC.communications@esa.int Guide produced by Kate Middleton. Student no: 11010533

Want for information on ESOC? Check out the website! http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESOC