21 NOVEMBER 2011

GALILEO TAKES TO THE SKY

The first two Galileo satellites are launched, establishing the foundation for Europe's answer to the US GPS and Russian Glonass global navigation satellite services.

23 OCTOBER 2013

LAST COMMAND SENT TO PLANCK FROM ESOC

28 AUGUST 2002

ESA DEVELOPS MISSION CONTROL SOFTWARE

SCOS-2000, the ESA-developed generic mission control system software, marked its operational debut for the launch and LEOP of MSG-1. Originally developed to support ESA missions, the software is now being promoted as a product and licenses are granted in the fields of space research and technology.

5 MARCH 2003

ESA'S FIRST DEEP-SPACE GROUND STATION

5 APRIL 1993

FIRST EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON SPACE DEBRIS

ESA's 1993 space debris video was produced by the Space Debris Office at ESOC for the first European Conference on Space debris. A second conference was held in 1996.

15 OCTOBER 1997

CASSINI-HUYGENS LAUNCH

19 MAY 1981

FIRST FLIGHT DYNAMICS SYMPOSIUM

ESOC invited the world to Darmstadt to share lessons on spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control.

14 MARCH 1986

GIOTTO ENCOUNTERS HALLEY'S COMET

Making encounters with comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup, Giotto was ESA’s first deep-space mission. It imaged a comet nucleus for the first time and found the first evidence of organic material on a comet. The mission, flown by ESOC, was a resounding success.

9 AUGUST 1989

HIPPARCOS LAUNCH

15 APRIL 1975

The European Space Conference of April 1975 approved the terms of the final draft of the ESA Convention, merging ELDO (European Launcher Development Organisation) and ESRO (European Space Research Organisation). The Convention was signed by member states Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany (Federal Republic), Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries, in Paris, on 30 May 1975, today celebrated as the birthday of ESA.

14 SEPTEMBER 1976

FIRST ESA GROUND STATION

8 SEPTEMBER 1967

ESOC INAUGURATION

The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) was inaugurated by Minister of Research of the Federal Republic of Germany, Gerhard Stoltenberg, in a new building at Robert-Bosch-Straße 5, Darmstadt, with 95 employees. Stig Comet, Director of ESOC’s predecessor, the European Space Data Centre (ESDAC), takes over as first Director at ESOC.

17 MAY 1968

ESRO-2B LAUNCH

A second 35-m deep space antenna is currently under construction at ESA’s New Norcia station. The new NNO-3 antenna will be very similar in design to NNO-1.

As ESA launches an increasing number of long-term space missions and supports the communication efforts of an increasing number of partners, the demand for ground station bandwidth is rising rapidly.

In 2015, a new 4.5-m radio dish was installed at New Norcia to replace the satellite acquisition capability previously provided by the station at Perth, which was retired. It is designated NNO-2.

NNO-2 offers a wider field of view than the NNO-1 antenna and can acquire signals from a newly launched spacecraft even when its position is not precisely known.

It can also be used to point the NNO-1 antenna. NNO-2 transmits and receives in X-band and can receive telemetry downloaded in S-band for launcher tracking.

New Norcia station, DSA 1 (Deep Space Antenna 1), is located 140 kilometres north of Perth, Western Australia, close to the town of New Norcia. It hosts a 35-metre deep-space communication antenna, NNO-1 with transmission and reception in both S- and X-band.

The NNO-1 antenna is one of the largest in the world for telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) applications. This is essential for high-performance communications with distant spacecraft, such as Mars Express, and missions in highly elliptical orbits that take them far from Earth, such as Solar Orbiter.

Malargüe station, DSA 3 (Deep Space Antenna 3), is located 30 km south of the city of Malargüe, about 1200 km west of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It hosts a 35 m-diameter deep-space communications antenna, MLG with X-band transmission and X- and Ka-band reception.

CEB provides daily routine operations or back-up support for a range of deep-space with facilities for tracking, telemetry, telecommand and radiometric measurements (ranging, Doppler, Delta-DOR).