The Lander Control Center (LCC) is located in Cologne and has a high level of competence in the operation of landers during their extraterrestrial missions. Within the Philae mission (landing on the comet) and MASCOT (landing on the asteroid Ryugu), the LCC team was responsible for the control and operation of the landers.
Current activities: support of the Mars Mission InSight (lander probe) and preparation for the Mission MMX (rover on the Phobos, a moon of Mars).

28.04.21 - M-42 will mea­sure ra­di­a­tion on the Moon A long-term stay on the Moon would subject the human body to a high level of radiation, as radiation in space is generally many times stronger than it is on Earth. Before humans return to the Moon, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will send a small measuring device, the M-42 radiation detector, to Lacus Mortis to record radiation levels on the surface. It will travel there on board the commercial Peregrine Mission 1, which is scheduled to launch in late 2021. Read more

Mars mission InSight The Mars mission InSight is landed on 26 November 2018. With InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), the geophysical properties of Mars will be investigated. Read more

MASCOT - an asteroid lander The near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, located approximately 300 million kilometres from Earth, has a new inhabitant: On 3 October 2018, the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) landed on the asteroid and began to work. The lander successfully separated from the Japanese Hayabusa2 space probe at 03:58 CEST. Read more

Rosetta Lander Control Center The MUSC in Cologne housed the Lander Control Center (LCC). Supported by their scientific partner (SONC) at CNES in Toulouse, the PHILAE team at LCC was responsible for the control and operation of the Lander. Read more

Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. These are the target of the Japanese Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, which also involves international partners. The spacecraft will carry a German-French rover that will land on either Phobos or Deimos and explore the surface in detail for several months. Read more

Virtual Control Room The „Virtual Control Room“ is a feature with access to some selected telemetry data for the Missions MASCOT, InSight, ROSETTA, MSL (ISS) and EXPOSE (ISS), coming straight from the control rooms of the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC). Read more