Universidad Politecnica de Madrid

E-USOC (Spanish User Support and Operations Centre) is a center of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) specializing in Research and Development (R&D) activities in space science and technology. It serves as the point of contact for Spanish user teams developing experiments requiring a microgravity environment, including those for the International Space Station, Space Shuttle missions, and Parabolic Flights. On behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), E-USOC provides assistance for the preparation, execution, and post-flight analysis of space experiments to the Spanish scientific community. It also acts as a point of contact for European users conducting space experiments involving payloads for which E-USOC is responsible, such as experiments concerning the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) onboard the International Space Station. E-USOC provides information and promotes activities in space sciences and fluid mechanics, offering technical and operational support to researchers and investigation groups for microgravity experiments or other space-related research. E-USOC is the Spanish point of contact for the utilization of Low Gravity Platforms sponsored by ESA, including Drop Towers, Parabolic Flights, Sounding Rockets, and Foton Retrievable Capsules. E-USOC participates in tasks such as facility and experiment operations preparation, validation, and execution; payload increment planning; operations feasibility and science samples bread-boarding; scientific experiment preparation and operation validation; consolidated planning with industry for ground model utilization; provision of science/sample based parts for experiment safety data packages; update of the Payload Operations Data File (PODF); experiment training requirements and procedures; real-time operations management and re-planning; and early retrieval and late access activities. E-USOC is a Facility Support Centre (FSC) for the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) onboard the ISS. It is located at Campus de Montegancedo, a technology Campus of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), in Pozuelo de Alarcón, on the outskirts of Madrid.