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Mission operations: keeping satellites running around the clock

At the ESOC control centre in Darmstadt, ESA makes sure satellites in orbit work smoothly26. The flight control team plans the observations every day and acts at once when a satellite raises an alarm14.

ESA · DarmstadtControl roomTeamwork
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Free, no sign-up, every statement with a source.

Main control room at ESOC, DarmstadtImage: ESA/J. Mai · CC BY 4.0

01 · Research

What is researched here: 284 experiments on a flying laboratory

New operations software has to prove that it works in orbit. For this, ESA ran the small satellite OPS-SAT from 2019 to 2024: 134 teams from 26 countries carried out more than 284 experiments, including AI on board75.

OPS-SAT was the first satellite open to use by the public. It also hosted the first demonstrated cyber attack in orbit, and some of its software is now used by much larger missions75.

Cybersecurity in space is a field of its own: ESA's ESEC centre in Belgium takes care of it and controls the Proba satellites26.

Ground station Contact window
Own diagram: commands and telemetry flow only while a ground station can see the satellite. The team therefore plans around contact times14.

02 · End product

The end product: a mission that delivers data for years

Good operations show in a mission's lifetime. Gaia observed for more than 10 years and collected more than 3 trillion observations of about 2 billion stars and other objects74.

The end is part of the job too: on 27 March 2025 Gaia was passivated so that it cannot interfere with other spacecraft74.

The Gaia spacecraft (illustration)Image: ESA/ATG medialab; ESO/S. Brunier · CC BY 4.0

03 · Daily work

What the work looks like: 5 tasks in the control centre

  1. Plan observations: every day, together with the mission's science operations centre.
  2. Balance constraints: power, data storage, fuel, ground stations and instrument rules.
  3. Work together: with flight dynamics, software systems and ground stations, especially during eclipses and manoeuvres.
  4. Resolve alarms: identify anomalies and act at once, following fixed procedures.
  5. Practise first: these procedures are written before launch and tested in a simulator.

Tasks based on ESA's description of routine operations14.

Keywords from the sources

Flight control proceduresSimulatorGround stationsAnomalies

04 · Your path

Your way in: 4 steps

  1. HTL, computer science

    First practice: in the STS1 school satellite project, schools can run their own ground station57.

  2. Bachelor

    Computer science or systems engineering, for example Systems Engineering in Villach41.

  3. Master

    For example Space Sciences and Earth from Space in Graz with a focus on satellite systems36.

  4. Entry

    As an ESA Graduate Trainee1; mission control is among the fields ESA trainees work in39.

05 · Who is hiring?

More employers in mission operations

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