Spain is mainly responsible for the development of the Ground Segment in collaboration with Russia; an agreement was signed in March 2007 between ROSCOSMOS and MICINN (Ministerio de Ciencia en Innovación. Innovation and Science Ministry). MICINN will fund the industrial participation in the project.

The Science Contractor is the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), founded by the Ministry of Education and Research. The Spanish Principal Investigator is Prof. Ana I. Gómez de Castro (UCM).

The Ground Segment, including the mission control segment and ground-based science segment, is a very important component of the WSO-UV project. The mission operation center (MOC) with co-located control centers and ground stations are parts of the Ground Control Segment to be set up by Spain and Russia with the possible participation of South African Republic and China. The core of the ground-based science segment is the Science Operation Center (SOC), which can be linked to various research centers (institutes, universities, etc.). The users, i.e., the researchers who have their applications included in the observing program, and those interested in obtaining research data stored in archives will be able to access the SOC via communication links (e.g., via Internet).