A spacecraft operating facility controlled by the European Space Agency (ESA), internationally recognized for its excellence in space debris studies and services, space situational awareness, ground system engineering, software systems, the design and development of tracking stations, and satellite navigation. Located in Darmstadt, Germany, the centre is responsible mainly for satellite control and monitoring and data retrieval. ESOC is often involved in a mission from its conception, taking over operations after a launch. It runs the ESA Operations Control Centre (OCC) with its main control room (MCR) of 14 working positions and large wall displays for special operations such as deep-space missions.

The OCC also has a flight dynamics room (FDR) for orbit and attitude calculations, a dedicated control room (DCR) for routine spacecraft monitoring and control, and a ground configuration control room (GCCR) for the ESTRACK network. Space debris research is carried out by a Mission Analysis Section. A dedicated mission support system (DMSS) of 32 workstations with hardware and software is used for mission control and data processing.

Since 1967, more than 70 satellites belonging to ESA and its partners have been successfully flown from Darmstadt. At any one time, ESOC operates over a dozen satellites.