The Belgian User Support and Operations Centre (B.USOC) provides technical and operational support for the preparation, implementation and operation of space projects, experiments or missions that are supported by the Belgian Federal Public Planning Service Science Policy (BELSPO) and the European Space Agency (ESA), or other funding organisations.
B.USOC is a Scientific Programme of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB).
While it was founded in 1997 by BELSPO as an operational centre with a particular emphasis on supporting scientific experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS), the B.USOC objectives and governance have been reviewed in 2023. They are since then better aligned with the direct interest of BIRA-IASB and by extension of the two other Space Pole Federal Scientific Institutes (KSB-ORB and KMI-IRM) and other Belgian space actors.
