* Astronomy

ESRO-2 control room

On 17 May 1968, the ESRO-2B satellite was launched by a Scout-B rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA, and became the first mission controlled by teams at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany.
Renamed the International Radiation Investigation Satellite (or 'Iris') once in orbit, it was the first developed by the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), a predecessor of the European Space Agency. ESRO's first satellites concentrated on solar and cosmic radiation and their interaction with Earth and its magnetosphere.
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