The ERS-2 satellite was launched in 1995, to provide continuity of service to the ERS-1 mission. Today, despite several major failures, ERS-2 is still operational and providing valuable data for scientific and operational purposes. This has been achieved despite the failure of all onboard science data storage and several gyros, through the use of innovative workarounds. Satellite performance in general has remained robust with high reliability despite the failures, whilst the demand for the ERS-2 products from the user community has remained high, and in some areas significantly increased. The ERS-2 ground segment was developed in the late 80s and early 90s. Since this time ground segment design and operational techniques have evolved considerably at ESOC, whilst some ERS-2 legacy systems have become harder to maintain and operate as they become outdated and obsolete. This paper presents recent updates to the ERS-2 ground segment and to the satellite operations that have boosted the return from the mission, including, the development and implementation of an ERS-2 / Envisat tandem mission requiring ERS-2 orbital change; the development and implementation of fast replanning services as a trial for GMES; the migration of certain ground segment elements, including the Flight Operations Plan; and the merging of Envisat and ERS-2 on-call engineering support teams.
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