The European Space Tracking (ESTRACK) network consists of a number of ground-based space-tracking stations belonging to the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

(ESA), and operated by the

European Space Operations Centre The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of unmanned spacecraft on behalf of ESA and ...

(ESOC) in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, Germany. The stations support various ESA spacecraft and facilitate communications between ground operators and scientific probes such as

XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerst ...

Mars Express ''Mars Express'' is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA). The ''Mars Express'' mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. "Express" originally ref ...

BepiColombo BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and ''Mio'' ...

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthe ...

. Similar networks are run by the

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, China,

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, Japan, and

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Composition

The Core ESTRACK network is composed of seven ESA-owned ground stations and the ESTRACK Control Centre in the

ESOC The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of unmanned spacecraft on behalf of ESA and ...

. Four of the stations are used for tracking satellites and launchers near Earth and three are used for tracking deep-space probes. Service contracts with commercially operated ground stations and cooperation agreements with international partners allows the network to track satellites that aren't in view of the ESA owned ground stations.

ESA stations

Core Ground Stations

* Kourou Station (French Guiana) *

Kiruna Station Kiruna Station is an ESTRACK radio antenna station for communication with spacecraft operated by the Swedish Space Corporation. It is located 38 km east of Kiruna, Sweden. The site hosts one 15 metre- and one 13-metre-diameter antenna, each w ...

(Sweden) *

Redu Station Redu Station is an ESTRACK radio Antenna (electronics), antenna station for communication with spacecraft. The station is located in Wallonia, about one kilometre away from the village of Redu, Belgium. The ground terminals provide tracking capab ...

(Belgium) *

Santa Maria Island Station Santa Maria Island Station (also known as SMA or Montes das Flores, ''Hill of Flowers'') is an ESTRACK satellite ground station in the Azores, from the town of Vila do Porto on the island of Santa Maria. Station currently operates a 5.5m S-band a ...

(Azores, Portugal)

Deep Space ''Antennas''

Cebreros Station Cebreros Station (also known as DSA 2 or Deep Space Antenna 2) is a European Space Agency, ESTRACK radio antenna station for communication with spacecraft, located about 10 km east of Cebreros and 90 km from Madrid, Spain, operated by t ...

(Spain) *

New Norcia Station New Norcia Station (also known as NNO) is an ESTRACK Earth station in Australia for communication with spacecraft after launch, in low earth orbit, in geostationary orbit and in deep space. It is located south of the town of New Norcia, Wes ...

(Australia) *

Malargüe Station Malargüe Station (also known as DSA 3 or Deep Space Antenna 3) is a 35-metre ESTRACK radio antenna in Argentina. It enables the European Space Agency (ESA) to communicate with spacecraft in deep space. It is located south of the town of Malar ...

(Argentina)

Augmented Network

* South Point * Santiago *

Troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human be ...

* Svalbard * Dongara

Cooperative Network

Poker Flat The Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) is a launch facility and rocket range for sounding rockets in the U.S. state of Alaska, located on a site at Chatanika, about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Fairbanks and 1.5 degrees south of the Arcti ...

* Goldstone * Weilheim *

Esrange Esrange Space Center (short form Esrange) is a rocket range and research centre located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the ...

Hartebeesthoek The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) is a radio astronomy observatory, located in a natural bowl of hills at Hartebeesthoek just south of the Magaliesberg mountain range, Gauteng, South Africa, about 50 km west of Johanne ...

* Malindi Space Centre (Kenya) *

Kerguelen The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...

* Usuda * Masuda * Canberra

Former stations

Perth Station Perth Station was an ESTRACK Earth stations in Australia, Earth station in Australia, located at the Perth International Telecommunications Centre in the suburb of Cullacabardee, Western Australia, Cullacabardee. It has been retired from service ...

(Australia) *

Maspalomas Station Maspalomas Station is an INTA-operated, ESTRACK radio antenna ground station for communication with spacecraft located at the southern area of Gran Canaria island, on the INTA campus. It is situated on the Montaña Blanca hill and is visible fro ...

(Gran Canaria, Spain) *

Villafranca Station Villafranca Station (also known as VILSPA) was an ESTRACK satellite ground station in Spain, north from the city of Madrid in a Villanueva de la Cañada, within the area of European Space Astronomy Centre. Station currently operates 15m S-band ant ...

(Spain)

Antennas

Each ESTRACK station is different, supporting multiple missions, some sharing one or more of the same missions. The ESTRACK core network consists of: *Three 35-metre diameter deep space antennas (New Norcia, Cebreros and Malargüe). *Three 15-metre antennas (Kourou, Kiruna, Redu) *One 13-metre antenna (Kiruna) *One 5.5-metre antenna (Santa-Maria) *One 4.5-meter antenna (New-Norcia 2) *One 2-meter antenna (Malindi, Kenya) *Six

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

-TDAF antennas The antennas are remotely operated from the ESTRACK Network Operations Centre (NOC) located at ESOC. The ESTRACK core network is completed by antenna belonging to cooperative agencies and antennas belonging to commercial partners. On 1 January 2013, the 35-metre station Marlargüe became the newest station to join the ESTRACK Deep Space Network. The station in Santa-Maria can be used to track Ariane launches and it is also capable of tracking Vega and Soyuz launchers operated from ESA's Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana..
ESA – ESA Spacecraft Operations – Boosting capability: Santa Maria station to join ESTRACK
/ref> The antenna in Malindi ( Malindi Space Centre (Kenya)) can be used for Launch and Early Orbit Phases. The small antenna in New-Norcia can be used for Launch and Early Orbit Phases and for tracking rain, Vega and Soyuz launchers operated from ESA's Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana.

References

External links

ESA Operations website

{{Use British English, date=January 2014 * Deep Space Network Ground stations European Space Agency