Editing European Space Agency (section)

===Facilities===
The agency's facilities date back to ESRO and are deliberately distributed among various countries and areas. The most important are the following centres:

*ESA headquarters in Paris, France;
*ESA science missions are based at [[European Space Research and Technology Centre|ESTEC]] in [[Noordwijk]], Netherlands;
*Earth Observation missions at the [[ESA Centre for Earth Observation]] in [[Frascati]], Italy;
*ESA Mission Control ([[European Space Operations Centre|ESOC]]) is in [[Darmstadt]], Germany;
*The [[European Astronaut Centre]] (EAC) that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in [[Cologne]], Germany;
*The [[European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications]] (ECSAT), a research institute created in 2009, is located in [[Harwell Science and Innovation Campus|Harwell]], England, United Kingdom;
*The [[European Space Astronomy Centre]] (ESAC) is located in [[Villanueva de la Cañada]], [[Comunidad de Madrid|Madrid]], Spain.
*The [[European Space Security and Education Centre]] (ESEC), located in Redu, Belgium; 
*The [[ESTRACK]] tracking and deep space communication network.
*Many other facilities are operated by national space agencies in close collaboration with ESA.
**[[Esrange]] near [[Kiruna]] in Sweden;
**[[Guiana Space Centre]] in Kourou, France;
**[[Toulouse Space Centre]], France;
**[[Institute of Space Propulsion]] in [[Lampoldshausen]], Germany;
**[[Columbus Control Centre]] in [[Oberpfaffenhofen]], Germany.