European Space Astronomy Centre

Aerial view of ESAC

Abbreviation| ESAC
Type| IGO
Location|

* Villafranca del Castillo, Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain

Leader| Carole Mundell (Director)

Parent organization

| European Space Agency
Website| www.esa.int/esac
Remarks| ESAC is one of nine establishments operated by ESA[1]

The European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid in Spain is a research centre of the European Space Agency (ESA). ESAC is the lead institution for space science (astronomy, Solar System exploration and fundamental physics) using ESA missions. It hosts the science operation centres for all ESA astronomy and planetary missions and their scientific data archives. ESA's Cebreros Station deep-space communication antennas are located nearby.

## Contents

* 1 Location
* 2 Missions
* 3 Communications
* 4 Other facilities
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 External links

## Location

ESAC is located near Villafranca del Castillo (es), within the municipal limits of Villanueva de la Cañada, is located 30 km west of Madrid in the Guadarrama Valley. The site is surrounded by light woodland and is adjacent to the ruins of the 15th-century Aulencia Castle (es).

## Missions

Control station at ESAC, in 2006

Past and present missions handled from ESAC include (in alphabetical order): Akari, BepiColombo, Cassini–Huygens, Cluster, Exomars, Gaia, Herschel Space Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, ISO, INTEGRAL, IUE, James Webb Space Telescope, LISA Pathfinder, Mars Express, Planck, Rosetta, SOHO, Solar Orbiter, Venus Express, and XMM-Newton.

Future missions include:Athena, Euclid, JUICE, and Plato.

In addition to deep space and solar system exploration, ESAC hosts the data processing of SMOS, a satellite observing the Earth, and the CESAR educational programme.

ESAC is also involved in ESA missions conducted in collaboration with other space agencies. One example is Akari, a Japanese-led mission to carry out an infrared sky survey, launched on 21 February 2006. Collaborative programmes include the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.

## Communications

Main articles: Organization:Cebreros Station and Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex

An ESA radio ground station for communication with spacecraft is located in Cebreros, Avila, about 90 km from Madrid and 65 km from ESAC. This installation provides essential support to the activities of ESAC. Inaugurated in September 2005, Cebreros has a 35-metre antenna used to communicate with distant missions to Mercury, Venus, Mars and beyond.

The Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex is also located nearby, operated by the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial. It is a station of the Deep Space Network used primarily for NASA missions, but sometimes supplements Cebreros in communicating with ESA spacecraft. It has a 70-metre antenna, six 34-m antennae and one 26-m antenna.

Two 15-metre radio antennae are located on the ESAC site, but were decommissioned in 2017.[2]

## Other facilities

ESAC also hosts a branch of the Spanish Astrobiology Center (CAB).[3]

## See also

* Facilities of the European Space Agency

## References

1. ↑ Establishments and facilities / Welcome to ESA / About Us / ESA
2. ↑ "Villafranca station" (in en). European Space Agency. https://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEM8QDSMTWE_0.html.
3. ↑ "CAB ESAC Campus". Centro de Astrobiolgía. https://cab.inta-csic.es/en/cab/organization/headquarters/.

## External links

* European Space Astronomy Centre website

* v
* t
* e

European Space Agency

| Spaceports|

* Guiana Space Centre
* Esrange

|

Launch vehicles|

* Ariane 5
* Ariane 6
* Arianespace Soyuz
* Vega

Facilities|

* Space Operations Centre
* Space Research and Technology Centre
* ESA Centre for Earth Observation
* European Astronaut Centre
* Space Astronomy Centre
* Space Applications and Telecommunications Centre
* Concurrent Design Facility
* Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility

Communications|

* ESTRACK
* European Data Relay System

Programmes|

* Aurora
* ATV
* Copernicus
* Sentinel
* Columbus
* CryoSat
* EGNOS
* GALILEO
* ELIPS
* ExoMars
* FLPP
* Living Planet Programme
* Orion
* Space Situational Awareness Programme
* Science Programme
* Horizon 2000
* Cosmic Vision
* Pride

Predecessors|

* European Launcher Development Organisation
* European Space Research Organisation

Related topics|

* Arianespace
* ESA Television
* EUMETSAT
* European Space Camp
* GEWEX
* Planetary Science Archive

Projects and missions

Science|

| Solar physics|

* ISEE-2 (1977–87)
* Ulysses (1990–2009)
* SOHO (1995–present)
* Cluster II (2000–present)
* Solar Orbiter (2020)
* Lagrange (2020s)

|

Planetary science|

* Giotto (1985–92)
* Huygens (1997–2005)
* SMART-1 (2003–06)
* Mars Express (2003–present)
* Rosetta/Philae (2004–16)
* Venus Express (2005–14)
* ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (2016–present)
* BepiColombo (2018–present)
* Rosalind Franklin rover (2020)
* Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (2022)
* Comet Interceptor (2028)

Astronomy and
cosmology

* Cos-B (1975–82)
* IUE (1978–96)
* EXOSAT (1983–86)
* Hipparcos (1989–93)
* Hubble (1990–present)
* Eureca (1992–93)
* ISO (1995–98)
* XMM-Newton (1999–present)
* INTEGRAL (2002–present)
* CoRoT (2006–13)
* Planck (2009–13)
* Herschel (2009–13)
* Gaia (2013–present)
* CHEOPS (2019)
* James Webb (2021)
* Euclid (2022)
* PLATO (2026)
* ARIEL (2028)
* ATHENA (2031)
* LISA (2034)

Earth observation|

* Copernicus (1988–)
* Meteosat First Generation (1977–97)
* ERS-1 (1991–2000)
* ERS-2 (1995–2011)
* Meteosat Second Generation (2002–present)
* Envisat (2002–12)
* Double Star (2003–07)
* MetOp (2006–present)
* GOCE (2009–13)
* SMOS (2009–present)
* CryoSat-2 (2010–present)
* Swarm (2013–present)
* Sentinel-1 / 1A / 1B (2014–present)
* Sentinel-2 / 2A / 2B (2015–present)
* Sentinel-3 / 3A / 3B (2016–present)
* Sentinel-5 Precursor (2017–present)
* ADM-Aeolus (2018–present)
* Biomass (2022)
* EarthCARE (2022)
* MetOp-SG-A (2022)
* FLEX (2023)
* Meteosat Third Generation (Sentinel-4) (2023)
* MetOp-SG-B (2023)
* SMILE (2023)
* FORUM (2026)

ISS spaceflight|

* ISS contribution (1998–present)
* Columbus (2008–present)
* Jules Verne (2008)
* Cupola (2010–present)
* Johannes Kepler (2011)
* Edoardo Amaldi (2012)
* Albert Einstein (2013)
* Georges Lemaître (2014)
* European Robotic Arm (2020)

Telecommunications|

* GEOS 2 (1978)
* Olympus-1 (1989–93)
* Artemis (2001–present)
* GIOVE-A (2005–present)
* GIOVE-B (2008–present)
* HYLAS-1 (2010–present)
* Galileo IOV (2011–present)
* Galileo FOC (2014–present)
* EGNOS
* European Data Relay System (2016–present)

Technology
demonstrators

* ARD (1998)
* PROBA-1 (2001–present)
* YES2 (2007)
* PROBA-2 (2009–present)
* PROBA-V (2013–present)
* IXV (2015)
* LISA Pathfinder (2015–17)
* OPS-SAT (2019)
* PROBA-3 (2021)
* AIDA (2023)

Cancelled and proposed|

* ALTIUS
* Ariane 5 ME
* Columbus Man-Tended Free Flyer
* CSTS
* Darwin Mission
* Don Quijote
* e.Deorbit
* EChO
* Eddington
* EnVision
* EXPERT
* Hermes
* Hopper
* LOFT
* Luna 27
* Lunar Lander
* Marco Polo
* MarcoPolo-R
* Mars sample return mission
* ODINUS
* SPICA
* STE-QUEST
* THESEUS
* THOR
* XIPE

Failed|

* Cluster
* CryoSat-1
* GEOS 1
* Schiaparelli EDM

Future missions in italics

* Category
* Commons
* Wikinews
* WikiProject

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