ESA’s global ground station network, Estrack, is evolving and opening the door to new partners.
ESA is expanding its capabilities to support future missions flying at cis-lunar distances up to 2 million km from Earth, and in deep space beyond 2 million km from Earth.
Analysis indicates that yearly demand will exceed current capacity by about 25% over the next five years, potentially resulting in data loss from ESA missions.
To address this, ESA is looking to collaborate with new partners to expand ground station capacity and performance.
The aim is to create a more flexible, resilient network by integrating additional European and commercial stations, alongside Estrack, as part of its Augmented Network. This evolution will ensure continued support for the growing number of missions, safeguarding data integrity and mission success.
This opens new opportunities for ground station operators to participate in critical and routine operations for ESA’s future missions.
Estrack Antenna Performance Requirements
ESA has outlined antenna performance requirements for ground stations supporting:
- cis-lunar & Sun-Earth Lagrange (L1/L2) missions
- deep space missions
The performance requirements document describes key parameters for uplink and downlink performance, availability, and protocols. These requirements provide guidance for ground station operators developing new capabilities or planning upgrades.
Download the technical brochure
Performance requirements are aligned with those of other space agencies and partner missions, providing an overall performance envelope across technical parameters and operating frequency bands. Not all ground antenna categories or frequency bands are equally relevant to ESA; their applicability depends on specific mission characteristics and needs. For further information, please get in touch with the contact points below.
Participation
ESA invites interest from ground station operators across Europe who wish to:
- offer compatible capacity to support future ESA missions
- collaborate on developing interoperable ground station services
- contribute to a coordinated European ground infrastructure
This opportunity is open to:
- organisations based in ESA Member States
- organisations partnering with entities based in ESA Member States.
Further details on participation and future steps will be shared later this year.