ESA Centre for Earth Observation

Inside the ESA Centre for Earth Observation, with a Vega rocket model
Abbreviation	ESRIN
Location	Frascati, Italy
Parent organization	European Space Agency
Website	www.esa.int/About_Us/ESRIN

41°49′37″N 12°40′27″E / 41.8269472°N 12.6741222°E / 41.8269472; 12.6741222

The ESA Centre for Earth Observation (also known as the European Space Research Institute or ESRIN) is a research centre belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA), located in Frascati (Rome) Italy.^[1] It is dedicated to research involving earth observation data taken from satellites, among other specialised activities. The establishment currently hosts the European Space Agency's development team for the Vega launcher.^[2]

History

ESLAR, a laboratory for advanced research was created in 1966 mainly to break the political deadlock over the location of ESLAB. Later renamed ESRIN, an acronym for European Space Research Institute, ESLAR was based in Frascati (Italy).^[3] The ESRO Convention describes ESRINs' role in the following manner:

...to undertake laboratory and theoretical research in the basic physics and chemistry necessary to the understanding of past and the planning of future experiments in space.

— ESRO Convention^[3]

The facility began acquiring data from environmental satellites within Earthnet programme in the 1970s.^[4]