The control rooms of the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) are located at the DLR sites in Oberpfaffenhofen and Cologne.
Oberpfaffenhofen provides the control rooms for satellite missions and human spaceflight missions. These include the system control room area and the offices staff. Both scientific as well as commercial and safety-relevant missions are operated here. The Columbus laboratory at the International Space Station is also maintained. For some missions, only the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) is carried out by the Control Center, while for most missions, especially scientific ones, also routine operations are carried out. Examples are the EUTELSAT W missions and Hispasat-36W-1 (LEOP only) or the scientific missions CHAMP, GRACE, TerrSAR-X and TanDEM-X (LEOP and routine operation). The control rooms are configured according to the mission requirements.
The Lander Control Center (LCC) is located in Cologne and has a high level of competence in interplanetary robotics, especially in the operation of landers. Within the ESA Rosetta mission, the GSOC team was responsible for the control and operation of the Philae lander.
In addition, the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) is located here in Cologne as part of DLR Space Operations. As the national special user center for space experiments, it is responsible for part of the experimental facilities in the European Columbus space laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS).