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Launcher tracking support implies vehicle telemetry reception and distribution and is indispensable for flight safety and accurate spacecraft separation. Technical and operational challenges are the uncertainty of launcher trajectory dispersion for acquisition, the high speed pointing target of the launcher, 1 Mb/s telemetry data rate, diversity operations on two different frequencies, synchronous telemetry data reception, real-time telemetry processing and distribution. ESA's Tracking Station Network was up-graded to support with dedicated stations the tracking of Ariane-5 and potentially, future European launchers (Soyuz, Vega). Therefore, a new station on the Island of Santa Maria, Azores, Portugal was developed for Ariane-5 mission support and an existing ESA 15m antenna in Perth, West Australia was up-graded even to feature launcher tracking and satellite first acquisition simultaneously. Nomenclature ACU= Antenna Control Unit AOS = Acquisition of Signal ATV = Automated Transfer Vehicle CSG = Centre Spatial Guyanais CNES = Centre National d'Études Spatiales CVI = Control Visuel Immédiat DO = Désignation d`Objectif ESA = European Space Agency ESOC = European Space Operations Centre ESTRACK= ESA Tracking Station Network FEC = Front-End Controller GTO = Geostationary Transfer Orbit HDLC = High-Level Data Link Control ISDN = Integrated Services Digital Network Mb/s = Megabit per second SAR = Synthetic Aperture Radar SSO = Sun-Synchronous Orbit TOV = Time Offset Value TM = Telemetry UTC = Universal Time Coordinated 1 Senior Ground Station Operations Engineer,

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