ESA’s European Space Operations Centre, inaugurated in Darmstadt, Germany in 1967 as ESRO’s mission control (formerly known as ESDAC)

European space research range, a rocket range and research centre located east of Kiruna in northern Sweden. Built by ESRO and inaugurated in 1966, ownership was transferred to the newly created Swedish Space Corporation in 1972.

ESA’s European Space Research Institute in Frascati, Italy, originally founded as ESRO’s ESLAR laboratory for advanced research in 1966

European Space Research Organisation, founded in 1964 by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space and operational until it was merged with ELDO to form ESA in 1975

ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, created in 1965 as ESRO’s Payload Engineering Unit and initially located in Delft

European Space Tracking and Telemetry Network

From time to time, joint and concomitant meetings of the ESA Council and the European Union Council are organised and are referred to as ‘Space Council’. Foreseen under the EC-ESA Framework Agreement, the Space Council allows all ESA and EU Member States, including cooperating states, to gather together to discuss the development of a coherent overall European space programme, leading to the adoption of joint orientations regarding space. The first of these European ‘Space Councils' was held in 2004.

European University Institute

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation, with its headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany and founded in 1986. EUMETSAT is the European operational satellite agency for monitoring weather, climate and the environment.

To be a candidate for a European Cooperating State agreement, a country must be European and already have signed a Cooperation Agreement with ESA. Participation is defined in a mutually-agreed five-year Plan for European Cooperating State (PECS).