It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, although several kilometers off the village but immediately linked to the most Northern district of the nearby town Katwijk.

At ESTEC, about 2500 engineers, technicians and scientists work hands-on with mission design, spacecraft and space technology.

ESTEC provides extensive testing facilities to verify the proper operation of spacecraft, such as the Large Space Simulator (LSS), acoustic and electromagnetic testing bays, multi-axis vibration tables and the ESA Propulsion Laboratory (EPL).

After the Bannier Report the facility gained overall executive authority for spacecraft development and was merged with ESLAB.

ESTEC was originally to be located in Delft (South Holland) but because of unforeseen difficulties, Noordwijk was chosen instead.