These standards cover management, engineering, product assurance, and space sustainability disciplines.

[6] The ECSS is managed by the ESA Requirement and Standard Division, based in the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

[9] Standardization was initially received negatively by some engineers, as developing complex space systems required special and unique methods.

However, appreciation quickly grew after the first work accomplished by the BSSC that defined the software life cycle and its phases.

Through the five years following the creation of the BSCC, and with the growing adoption of the pink documents, opposition to standardization gradually decreased.

[2] A work group was established to define the Standardization Policy, approved by the Steering Board under the title ECSS-P-00 by late 1993.

[1] Currently, the ECSS standards are essential in ESA projects (e.g. the ESTRACK stations[16]), but are also widely adopted by the European space industry.

These standards have been applied to the qualification of software engineering (e.g. AdaCore's Ravenscar SFP run-time[17]), mechanical parts (e.g. AMRC nanosatellite fuel tank burst pressure[18]), radiation hardening (e.g.

Reflex Photonics transceivers radiation dose tolerance[19]), material processes (e.g. Surrey Nanosystems super black coating[20]), among others.

The Executive Secretariat[25] is responsible for administrative support, promoting the ECSS, and managing communication.

Finally, the Working Groups are initiated as needed, and are responsible for defining or updating standards.

However, formally participating to the pursuit of the ECSS objectives must be done under one of the three defined types of membership: full members, associates, or observers.

The main interests are the improvement of project cost efficiency, the assurance of product quality and safety, the expansion of interoperability, and the harmonization of the European space sector.

The ECSS actively works to promote the adoption of its standards by the European space community, by making its documents freely available worldwide,[28] and by providing the adequate training[29] for potential users.

The complete ECSS system is publicly available in a ZIP archive file format on the European Space Components Information Exchange System (ESCIES) server,[28] as well as in the IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS format.