ESA ESRIN research center

ESA’s centre for Earth observation is in Frascati, south of Rome, Italy. It manages the ground segment for ESA and third-party Earth-observation satellites, maintaining the largest archive of environmental data in Europe, coordinating over 20 ground stations and ground-segment facilities throughout Europe and cooperating with another 20 foreign ground-segment operators worldwide.

As well as home to ESA’s Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, it hosts the project team managing the Vega small-launcher programme.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESRIN_SITE/index.html