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89-780: Initially, the ESIS project was to link databases of the European Space Agency together with centres of excellence that included the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg and its SIMBAD service, the European Southern Observatory and the Canadian Astronomical Data Centre (CADC), as well as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory for Space Physics data The outcome of the project yielded

178-445: A Convention for signature by those member state governments who wished to join it. To this end the meeting first elected its "bureau": chairman Harrie Massey , vice-chairmen, Luigi Broglio and Hendrik van de Hulst , and executive secretary Pierre Auger, all men who had played an important role in the debates in 1960 and, Auger apart, still active and eminent European space scientists. It then established two working groups. The first

267-568: A consequence its citizens became eligible to apply to the 2022 ESA Astronaut group , applications for which were scheduled to close one week later. The deadline was therefore extended by three weeks to allow Lithuanians a fair chance to apply. Slovakia's Associate membership came into effect on 13 October 2022, for an initial duration of seven years. The Association Agreement supersedes the European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement, which entered into force upon Slovakia's subscription to

356-455: A full member of the ESA do so in 3 stages. First a Cooperation Agreement is signed between the country and ESA. In this stage, the country has very limited financial responsibilities. If a country wants to co-operate more fully with ESA, it signs a European Cooperating State (ECS) Agreement, albeit to be a candidate for said agreement, a country must be European. The ECS Agreement makes companies based in

445-585: A full member of the ESA on 1 January 2025, when the current Association Agreement expires. Latvia became the second current associated member on 30 June 2020, when the Association Agreement was signed by ESA Director Jan Wörner and the Minister of Education and Science of Latvia , Ilga Šuplinska in Riga . The Saeima ratified it on 27 July. In May 2021, Lithuania became the third current associated member. As

534-534: A fully voluntary mechanism for application project financing. Under the first package deal ESRO pursued a project to establish a European satellite system by the early 1980s in partnership with the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations and the European Broadcasting Union . ESRO merged with ELDO to form the European Space Agency in 1975 before the first satellite of

623-431: A higher quality of life, better security, more economic wealth, and also fulfill our citizens' dreams and thirst for knowledge, and attract the young generation. This is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be even more important in the future. The ESA describes its work in two overlapping ways: These are either mandatory or optional. According to

712-547: A joint European space effort are generally traced back to a number of initiatives taken in 1959 and 1960 by a small group of scientists and science administrators, catalysed by two friends, physicists and scientific statesmen, the Italian Edoardo Amaldi and the Frenchman Pierre Victor Auger . Neither Amaldi nor Auger was a stranger to the cause of scientific collaboration on a European scale. Indeed, it

801-556: A launch system, ELDO (European Launcher Development Organisation), and the other the precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation). The latter was established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962. From 1968 to 1972, ESRO launched seven research satellites, but ELDO was not able to deliver a launch vehicle. Both agencies struggled with the underfunding and diverging interests of their participants. The ESA in its current form

890-472: A milestone in the search for exoplanets . On 21 January 2019, ArianeGroup and Arianespace announced a one-year contract with the ESA to study and prepare for a mission to mine the Moon for lunar regolith . In 2021 the ESA ministerial council agreed to the " Matosinhos manifesto" which set three priority areas (referred to as accelerators ) "space for a green future, a rapid and resilient crisis response, and

979-507: A more dominant role. The fact that sounding rockets are relatively inexpensive, have a short lead time, provide a test bed for more ambitious project and have a low risk of failure made them an ideal first project for the newly formed European Space Research Organisation. The first two ESRO sounding rockets were launches from the Salto di Quirra range in Sardinia on 6 and 8 July 1964. They released

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1068-573: A network of tracking and telemetry stations which can receive signals from spacecraft (ESTRACK). This network comprised four stations situated in the following locations: Secondly, it requires a central facility which edits and processes the information from the tracking network. The facilities at the centre, initially labelled ESDAC (European Space Data Acquisition Centre), were essentially a large mainframe computer or computers, which wAS made available both to its in-house staff and to visiting scientists and fellows who wished to use them to analyse and study

1157-600: A payload of barium and ammonia into the ionosphere. The first launch from ESRANGE was made in November 1966. From this point onward the frequency of sounding rocket launches increased dramatically. The Norwegian base in Andøya was also used as a launch site. The British Skylark (83) and French Centaure (64) were the main rockets utilised for the programme. The American Arcas (14), French Bélier (4) and Dragon (2), British Petrel (1) and German/Swiss Zenit (1) were also used. In total,

1246-484: A provision ensuring a fair industrial return to Canada. The most recent Cooperation Agreement was signed on 15 December 2010 with a term extending to 2020. For 2014, Canada's annual assessed contribution to the ESA general budget was €6,059,449 ( CAD$ 8,559,050). For 2017, Canada has increased its annual contribution to €21,600,000 ( CAD$ 30,000,000). The ESA is funded from annual contributions by national governments of members as well as from an annual contribution by

1335-567: A set of applications to browse catalogues, access images, spectra and lightcurves, as well as access to bibliographic information. The main astronomical missions that influenced ESIS at the time were the Hubble Space Telescope , EXOSAT and IUE , while Space Physics was mainly focused on the Cluster mission . Having been a pioneer project in its days, many of the original concepts used then (such as catalogue browsing, searching in an area of

1424-467: A view to their being used for scientific purposes and for operational space applications systems… The ESA is responsible for setting a unified space and related industrial policy, recommending space objectives to the member states, and integrating national programs like satellite development, into the European program as much as possible. Jean-Jacques Dordain – ESA's Director General (2003–2015) – outlined

1513-711: A while already and which gives effect to these. Thanks Jan for your hand of friendship and making this possible." The ESA currently has two operational launch vehicles Vega-C and Ariane 6 . Rocket launches are carried out by Arianespace , which has 23 shareholders representing the industry that manufactures the Ariane 5 as well as CNES , at the ESA's Guiana Space Centre . Because many communication satellites have equatorial orbits, launches from French Guiana are able to take larger payloads into space than from spaceports at higher latitudes . In addition, equatorial launches give spacecraft an extra 'push' of nearly 500 m/s due to

1602-590: Is a 22-member intergovernmental body devoted to space exploration . With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, the ESA was founded in 1975. Its 2024 annual budget was €7.8 billion. The ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); the launch and operation of crewless exploration missions to other planets (such as Mars ) and

1691-477: Is a widespread harassment between management and its employees, especially with its contractors. Since the ESA is an international organization, unaffiliated with any single nation, any form of legal action is difficult to raise against the organization. Member states participate to varying degrees with both mandatory space programs and those that are optional. As of 2008 , the mandatory programmes made up 25% of total expenditures while optional space programmes were

1780-588: Is already underway in two different areas of launcher activity that will bring benefits to both partners. Notable ESA programmes include SMART-1 , a probe testing cutting-edge space propulsion technology, the Mars Express and Venus Express missions, as well as the development of the Ariane 5 rocket and its role in the ISS partnership. The ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot , launched on 27 December 2006,

1869-517: Is at an advanced stage" with these nations and that "prospects for mutual benefits are existing". A separate space exploration strategy resolution calls for further co-operation with the United States, Russia and China on " LEO exploration, including a continuation of ISS cooperation and the development of a robust plan for the coordinated use of space transportation vehicles and systems for exploration purposes, participation in robotic missions for

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1958-567: Is capable of carrying a payload with a mass of between 300 and 1500 kg to an altitude of 700 km, for low polar orbit . Its maiden launch from Kourou was on 13 February 2012. Vega began full commercial exploitation in December 2015. The rocket has three solid propulsion stages and a liquid propulsion upper stage (the AVUM ) for accurate orbital insertion and the ability to place multiple payloads into different orbits. A larger version of

2047-607: Is designed to better understand dark energy and dark matter by accurately measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe . The agency's facilities date back to ESRO and are deliberately distributed among various countries and areas. The most important are the following centres: The treaty establishing the European Space Agency reads: The purpose of the Agency shall be to provide for and to promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European States in space research and technology and their space applications, with

2136-455: The European Union (EU). The budget of the ESA was €5.250 billion in 2016. Every 3–4 years, ESA member states agree on a budget plan for several years at an ESA member states conference. This plan can be amended in future years, however provides the major guideline for the ESA for several years. The 2016 budget allocations for major areas of the ESA activity are shown in the chart on

2225-593: The International Ultraviolet Explorer mission with NASA under these policy guidelines. The first step towards a telecommunications program within ESRO was made in the end of 1966 when the European Conference on Satellite Communications requested that the organisation examine the potential for a European telecom satellite project. Although studies were carried out at this early stage as well as during

2314-538: The Orion spacecraft service module that flies on the Space Launch System . After World War II , many European scientists left Western Europe in order to work with the United States. Although the 1950s boom made it possible for Western European countries to invest in research and specifically in space-related activities, Western European scientists realised solely national projects would not be able to compete with

2403-525: The Titan landing module Huygens . As the successor of ELDO , the ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1 , launched in 1979, carried mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward. The next two versions of the Ariane rocket were intermediate stages in the development of a more advanced launch system, the Ariane 4 , which operated between 1988 and 2003 and established

2492-535: The United States military ) led to decisions to rely more on itself and on co-operation with Russia. A 2011 press issue thus stated: Russia is ESA's first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. There is a framework agreement between ESA and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation and partnership in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and cooperation

2581-557: The 8 years covered by the ESRO Convention, namely 11 small satellites, 4 space probes, and 2 large satellites. It was assumed that 2 launchings would be required to orbit one successful spacecraft, so the number of satellite and space probes launchings budgeted for was doubled. The total cost of the satellite programme was estimated at 733.5 million ₣ , of which 450 million ₣ was for launchers and launch operations and 283.5 million ₣ for spacecraft development. The Blue Book

2670-511: The Ariane 6 to launch in June or July 2024. The beginning of the new millennium saw the ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA , ISRO , the CSA and Roscosmos , one of the major participants in scientific space research . Although the ESA had relied on co-operation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances (such as tough legal restrictions on information sharing by

2759-518: The Bannier Report ESLAB was merged with ESTEC. In 1964 ESRANGE was established as an ESRO sounding rocket launching range located in Kiruna (Sweden). This location was chosen because it was important to carry out a sounding rocket programme in the auroral zone, and essential that ESRO equip itself with a suitable range in the northern latitudes. Access to Kiruna was good by air, road and rail, and

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2848-472: The Bannier Report it became responsible for policy, planning and a posteriori control. The ESRO convention outlined the organisation as one which would be solely devoted to space science. As a consequence, scientific work was the main area of ESROs early operations. As the organisation and its capabilities matured it shifted from a strictly scientific programme to one where applicational activities played

2937-595: The Bannier group suggested that ESRO's top management structure be completely changed. The dichotomy between scientific and technical directorates was, in Bannier's view, wrong in principle for an organisation like ESRO. To overcome it, he suggested that the two posts be abolished. In its stead a new structure was proposed. It comprised the Director General (DG) plus four directors, two of whom were essentially responsible for policy-making and two for policy execution. A new post

3026-557: The Directorate. But this was only a stop-gap measure. Bannier realised that the entire structure of ESOC had to be changed. Firstly, they were emphatic that the executive function of the organisation should be clearly separated from the policy and the planning function. Secondly, as far as the scientific programme was concerned, they recommended that there be a clear institutional distinction drawn between spacecraft development and spacecraft operation after launch. To achieve these objectives,

3115-511: The ESA as full members. Since October 2022 there have been five associate members: Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Canada. The four European members have shown interest in full membership and may eventually apply within the next years. Since 2016, Slovenia has been an associated member of the ESA. In November 2023 Slovenia formally applied for full membership. In June 2024 Prime Minister Robert Golob and Director General Josef Aschbacher have signed an agreement that will see Slovenia become

3204-439: The ESA as the world leader in commercial space launches in the 1990s. Although the succeeding Ariane 5 experienced a failure on its first flight, it has since firmly established itself within the heavily competitive commercial space launch market with 112 successful launches until 2021. The successor launch vehicle, the Ariane 6 , is under development and had a successful long-firing engine test in November 2023. The ESA plans for

3293-467: The ESA began Giotto , its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup . Hipparcos , a star-mapping mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO , Ulysses and the Hubble Space Telescope were all jointly carried out with NASA. Later scientific missions in cooperation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, to which the ESA contributed by building

3382-533: The ESA is not the only European governmental space organisation (for example European Union Satellite Centre and the European Union Space Programme Agency ). After the decision of the ESA Council of 21/22 March 2001, the procedure for accession of the European states was detailed as described the document titled "The Plan for European Co-operating States (PECS)". Nations that want to become

3471-479: The ESA website, the activities are: Every member country (known as 'Member States') must contribute to these programmes: The European Space Agency Science Programme is a long-term programme of space science missions. Depending on their individual choices the countries can contribute to the following programmes, becoming 'Participating States', listed according to: As of 2023, Many other facilities are operated by national space agencies in close collaboration with

3560-572: The ESA. The ESA employs around 2,547 people, and thousands of contractors. Initially, new employees are contracted for an expandable four-year term, which is until the organization's retirement age of 63. According to the ESA's documents, the staff can receive myriad of perks, such as financial childcare support, retirement plans, and financial help when migrating. The ESA also prevents employees from disclosing any private documents or correspondences to outside parties. Ars Technica ' s 2023 report, which contained testimonies of 18 people, suggested that there

3649-494: The ESIS concept, which was decades ahead of its time, is reflected in the ESA Sky tool encompassing over 75 space missions and multiple data archives giving a unified access to multiple wavelength astronomy data. Also, TOPCAT, a specialised Astronomical tool for the scientific community is one of the many providing uniform access to data from data archives worldwide. European Space Agency The European Space Agency ( ESA )

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3738-421: The ESRO jargon), the supreme governing body was the council, made of delegations from its Member States. Each member state had one vote in the council, where it could be represented by not more than two delegates, one of whom was generally a scientist, the other an important national science administrator. One or more advisers were usually included national delegations. The main tasks of the council were to determine

3827-444: The European Space Agency's mission in a 2003 interview: Today space activities have pursued the benefit of citizens, and citizens are asking for a better quality of life on Earth. They want greater security and economic wealth, but they also want to pursue their dreams, to increase their knowledge, and they want younger people to be attracted to the pursuit of science and technology. I think that space can do all of this: it can produce

3916-479: The Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles ; and maintaining a major spaceport , the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou ( French Guiana ), France. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 6 will be operated through Arianespace with the ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle. The agency is also working with NASA to manufacture

4005-573: The Organisation's scientific, technical and administrative policy; to approve its programme and annual work plans; and to determine its level of resources both annually, and every third year for the subsequent three-year period. The council was advised by two subordinate bodies, the Administrative and Finance Committee (AFC) and the Scientific and Technical Committee (STC). At the executive level, ESRO

4094-631: The Plan for European Cooperating States Charter on 4 February 2016, a scheme introduced at ESA in 2001. The ECS Agreement was subsequently extended until 3 August 2022. Since 1 January 1979, Canada has had the special status of a Cooperating State within the ESA. By virtue of this accord, the Canadian Space Agency takes part in the ESA's deliberative bodies and decision-making and also in the ESA's programmes and activities. Canadian firms can bid for and receive contracts to work on programmes. The accord has

4183-507: The United Kingdom. Two other countries which had participated in the early COPERS activities, Austria and Norway, decided not to join the new organisation but retained an observer status. The first meeting of the Council opened in Paris three days later with Harrie Massey in the chair. Pierre Auger was appointed ESRO's first Director General. At the decision making level (the "Legislative" in

4272-736: The Vega launcher, Vega-C had its first flight in July 2022. The new evolution of the rocket incorporates a larger first stage booster, the P120C replacing the P80 , an upgraded Zefiro (rocket stage) second stage, and the AVUM+ upper stage. This new variant enables larger single payloads, dual payloads, return missions, and orbital transfer capabilities. Historically, the Ariane family rockets have been funded primarily "with money contributed by ESA governments seeking to participate in

4361-472: The agency functioned in a de facto fashion. The ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B , a space probe monitoring gamma-ray emissions in the universe, which was first worked on by ESRO. The ESA collaborated with NASA on the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the world's first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986

4450-435: The case for most of its lifetime but in the final years before the formation of ESA, the European Space Agency , ESRO began a programme in the field of telecommunications. Consequently, ESA is not a mainly pure science focused entity but concentrates on telecommunications, earth observation and other application motivated activities. ESRO was merged with ELDO in 1975 to form the European Space Agency . The origins of

4539-476: The cooperation were laid out in a framework agreement signed by the two entities. On 17 November 2020, ESA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). SANSA CEO Dr. Valanathan Munsami tweeted: "Today saw another landmark event for SANSA with the signing of an MoU with the ESA. This builds on initiatives that we have been discussing for

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4628-559: The country eligible for participation in ESA procurements. The country can also participate in all ESA programmes, except for the Basic Technology Research Programme. While the financial contribution of the country concerned increases, it is still much lower than that of a full member state. The agreement is normally followed by a Plan For European Cooperating State (or PECS Charter). This is a 5-year programme of basic research and development activities aimed at improving

4717-579: The development of the European Ariane launcher. This task was entrusted to CNES . The second package deal enabled ESRO to enter into cooperation with NASA on the Spacelab project as well as manage the MAROTS maritime satellite navigation project. This agreement made funding easier and more flexible for the contributing nations which led to a doubling of the organisation's overall budget. ESRO also participated in

4806-404: The end only a handful of projects produced concrete results. These were the two small, non-stabilised satellites ESRO I and ESRO II , launched in 1968 and renamed after launch Aurorae and Iris respectively; the two small highly eccentric orbit satellites HEOS-A and HEOS-A2, launched in 1968 and 1972 and then renamed HEOS-1 and HEOS-2; the medium size, stabilised satellite TD-1, launched in 1972; and

4895-572: The exploration of the Moon, the robotic exploration of Mars, leading to a broad Mars Sample Return mission in which Europe should be involved as a full partner, and human missions beyond LEO in the longer term." In August 2019, the ESA and the Australian Space Agency signed a joint statement of intent "to explore deeper cooperation and identify projects in a range of areas including deep space, communications, navigation, remote asset management, data analytics and mission support." Details of

4984-509: The future needs of personnel, finance and contracts, and to organise and implement the necessary procedures to maintain an a posteriori control over the Organisation's functioning. The two posts in the Directorate having executive authority would be filled by the director of ESTEC and of ESDAC, which was to be renamed ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre. As for ESRIN, the Bannier group judged its research to be marginal to

5073-487: The higher rotational velocity of the Earth at the equator compared to near the Earth's poles where rotational velocity approaches zero. Ariane 6 is a heavy lift expendable launch vehicle developed by Arianespace . The Ariane 6 entered into its inaugural flight campaign on 26 April 2024 with the flight conducted on 9 July 2024. Vega is the ESA's carrier for small satellites. Developed by seven ESA members led by Italy . It

5162-532: The launching range was relatively close to the town of Kiruna. Finally and perhaps decisively, ESRANGE could be located near Kiruna Geophysical Observatory (subsequently renamed the Swedish Institute of Space Physics ). In 1972 ownership and operations of the range was transferred to the Swedish Space Corporation . Space science data handling has two aspects. Firstly, it requires the setting up of

5251-544: The major activities of the Organisation. Its director, they felt, should not be a member of the directorate but should rather report directly to the DG. The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) was to be a facility at the very core of ESRO. Its responsibilities included the engineering and testing of satellites and their payloads, the integration of scientific instruments in these payloads, and making arrangements for their launch. In some cases member states were to produce

5340-499: The minimum scale deemed necessary by the Council [...] to complete or complement the scientific studies carried out in Member States." This meant that ESLAB was little more than a venue for visiting scientists. ESLAB's role was later expanded. It acted as the interface between national scientific groups and ESTEC engineering groups as well as conducted its own research within the scope of the large astronomical satellite project. After

5429-670: The nation's space industry capacity. At the end of the 5-year period, the country can either begin negotiations to become a full member state or an associated state or sign a new PECS Charter. Many countries, most of which joined the EU in both 2004 and 2007, have started to co-operate with the ESA on various levels: During the Ministerial Meeting in December 2014, ESA ministers approved a resolution calling for discussions to begin with Israel, Australia and South Africa on future association agreements. The ministers noted that "concrete cooperation

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5518-559: The operational programme. For this reason the Council set up a group of experts led by J.H. Bannier to investigate and solve the problem. Bannier quickly relieved the pressure on the AFC by raising the limit below which the Executive could award contracts without having to seek committee approval. He further increased the role of the Executive by transferring certain competencies from the Legislative to

5607-873: The other 75%. The ESA has traditionally implemented a policy of "georeturn", where funds that ESA member states provide to the ESA "are returned in the form of contracts to companies in those countries." By 2015, the ESA was an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states. The 2008 ESA budget amounted to €3.0 billion whilst the 2009 budget amounted to €3.6 billion. The total budget amounted to about €3.7 billion in 2010, €3.99 billion in 2011, €4.02 billion in 2012, €4.28 billion in 2013, €4.10 billion in 2014, €4.43 billion in 2015, €5.25 billion in 2016, €5.75 billion in 2017, €5.60 billion in 2018, €5.72 billion in 2019, €6,68 billion in 2020, €6.49 billion in 2021, €7.15 billion in 2022, €7.46 billion in 2023 and €7.79 billion in 2024. English and French are

5696-483: The overall budget. This first lead to a change in the administrative structure and a 50% reduction of the scientific staff. Given the new budgetary environment, LPAC had to choose which two missions to fly among the five which had been planned thus far. It eventually chose HELOS, renamed Exosat , and the IMP-D, renamed ISEE-2 , projects. This new ESRO policy, negotiated in 1973, gave the organisation overall responsibility for

5785-435: The possibilities for a joint space research effort. The European Preparatory Commission for Space Research ( French : Commission Préparatoire Européenne de Recherche Spatiale , COPERS ) held its first session in Paris on 13 and 14 March 1961. Its first task was to create the organs needed to define the scientific programme and the necessary infrastructure of the envisaged organisation, to draw up its budget, and to prepare

5874-403: The program oversaw the launch of 168 sounding rockets with an average success rate of 75%. During the course of the programme, the size and payload of the sounding rockets used by ESRO increased from 2.7 to 5.55 m (in length) and from 140 to 310 kg respectively. About half of the 168 sounding rockets were dedicated to ionospheric and auroral studies, about a quarter to atmospheric physics and

5963-413: The program rather than through competitive industry bids. This [has meant that] governments commit multiyear funding to the development with the expectation of a roughly 90% return on investment in the form of industrial workshare." ESA is proposing changes to this scheme by moving to competitive bids for the development of the Ariane 6 . ESRO The European Space Research Organisation ( ESRO )

6052-526: The protection of space assets", and two further high visibility projects (referred to as inspirators ) an icy moon sample return mission; and human space exploration. In the same year the recruitment process began for the 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group . 1 July 2023 saw the launch of the Euclid spacecraft , developed jointly with the Euclid Consortium, after 10 years of planning and building it

6141-546: The recovered data. ESDAC was later renamed ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre. ESOC is located in Darmstadt (Germany). After the Bannier Report it gained overall executive authority for spacecraft operation. ESOC's director also became responsible for ESRANGE and for ESTRACK. ESLAR, a laboratory for advanced research was created in 1966 mainly to break the political deadlock over the location of ESLAB. Later renamed ESRIN, and acronym for European Space Research Institute, ESLAR

6230-447: The rest to solar, stellar and gamma-ray studies. While the number of launched rockets was lower than foreseen, the project exceeded expectations due to higher than anticipated payload capacity and longer range of the rockets. The Blue Book foresaw the launching of 11 small satellites, 4 space probes, and 2 large satellites. These ambitions were never realized mainly due to financial troubles. The programme went through many revisions and in

6319-475: The right. Countries typically have their own space programmes that differ in how they operate organisationally and financially with the ESA. For example, the French space agency CNES has a total budget of €2,015 million, of which €755 million is paid as direct financial contribution to the ESA. Several space-related projects are joint projects between national space agencies and the ESA (e.g. COROT ). Also,

6408-421: The scientific instruments for ESRO or produce them as part of their own national effort and compensate ESTEC for its service. In practise, national organisations simply used ESTEC as a service organisation and left it to pay for their efforts from the ESRO budget. After the Bannier Report the facility gained overall executive authority for spacecraft development and was merged with ESLAB. The satellite control centre

6497-669: The sky) were later embedded in other astronomical data services worldwide. ESIS provided the building blocks and the prototypes to what is today being implemented in the Virtual Observatory projects, such as the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory . The greatest success of ESIS was the transfer of its Catalogue Browser to the CDS, which later became better known as the VizieR Catalogue Service. In recent years,

6586-474: The small satellite ESRO IV, also launched in 1972, which replaced the second satellite of the TD series (TD-2). All of these were multi-experiment satellites, i.e. the spacecraft carried a payload comprising several instruments provided by different research groups. This was the name of a policy shift negotiated by ESRO members in 1971 which drastically reduced scientific funding in favor of application activities doubling

6675-403: The subsequent 5 years the ESRO council would not approve research and development activities until 1971 when the first package deal took effect. The delay was due to ESROs rigid decision making structure and the unfavorable political situation which existed among ESRO members at the time. These problems were largely done away with as part of the 1971 policy change which, among other things, outlined

6764-550: The third meeting of COPERS on 24 and 25 October 1961 in Munich, the Interim Scientific and Technical Working Group had prepared a 77-page document outlining the future European Space Research Organisation. The so-called "Blue Book" was divided into five parts, each devoted to one of the following subjects: The Blue Book foresaw the firing of some 435 sounding rockets and the successful development and launching of 17 satellites in

6853-544: The two main superpowers. In 1958, only months after the Sputnik shock , Edoardo Amaldi (Italy) and Pierre Auger (France), two prominent members of the Western European scientific community, met to discuss the foundation of a common Western European space agency. The meeting was attended by scientific representatives from eight countries. The Western European nations decided to have two agencies: one concerned with developing

6942-615: The two official languages of the ESA. Additionally, official documents are also provided in German and documents regarding the Spacelab have been also provided in Italian. If found appropriate, the agency may conduct its correspondence in any language of a member state. The following table lists all the member states and adjunct members, their ESA convention ratification dates, and their contributions as of 2024: Previously associated members were Austria, Norway and Finland, all of which later joined

7031-468: Was also moved to ESOC. ESTEC was originally to be located in Delft (Holland) but because of unforeseen difficulties, Noordwijk was chosen instead. The situation with ESRO's laboratory, ESLAB was similar. It lacked the staff to function as an independent organisation. But this wasn't surprising since the ESRO Convention describes ESLAB's role in the following manner: "...to undertake joint research programmes on

7120-401: Was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space . It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a previously existing international scientific institution, CERN . The ESRO convention, the organisations founding document outlines it as an entity exclusively devoted to scientific pursuits. This was

7209-693: Was appointed its coordinating secretary. The second was the Legal, Administrative and Financial Working Group . Its chairman was initially left open, though it was recommended that he be someone from the German Federal Republic. Alexander Hocker , a senior bureaucrat from Bad-Godesberg who was the chairman of the CERN Finance Committee at the time, took on this task. All Member States were to be represented on both working groups, which were empowered to set up subgroups to facilitate their work. By

7298-470: Was based in Frascati (Italy). The ESRO Convention describes ESRINs' role in the following manner: "...to undertake laboratory and theoretical research in the basic physics and chemistry necessary to the understanding of past and the planning of future experiments in space." The facility began acquiring data from environmental satellites in the 1970s. ESRO headquarters was home to the Executive arm of ESRO. After

7387-573: Was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975, when ESRO was merged with ELDO. The ESA had ten founding member states: Belgium , Denmark , France , West Germany , Italy , the Netherlands , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , and the United Kingdom . These signed the ESA Convention in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, when the convention came into force. During this interval

7476-532: Was managed by a Directorate based in Paris, including the Director General assisted by a Scientific Director, a Technical Director and a Head of Administration . The directors of ESRIN , ESDAC and ESLAB reported to the Scientific Director; the director of ESTEC , who had also responsibility for ESRANGE and ESTRACK , reported to the Technical Director. The "Executive", as it was eventually called,

7565-605: Was more a manifesto of interests and expectations than a concrete working hypothesis. It only reflected the intentions and hopes of important sectors of the European scientific community while ignoring their lack of capacity to fulfill these intentions. The fact that transforming the manifesto into a true operational programme would be a long and laborious process and the results sometimes disappointing. The ESRO Convention entered into force on 20 March 1964. The ten founding states were Belgium, Denmark, France, (Federal Republic of) Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and

7654-580: Was responsible for the implementation of approved programmes within the established financial envelope and under general control from the Scientific and Technical Committee. It was also called to perform feasibility studies of space missions proposals coming from the scientific community and recommended by the STC, in view of their eventual adoption in the programme. Only two years after the formation of ESRO, problems with its structure became painfully obvious. By mid-1966 it had climbed to 50%, placing enormous pressure on

7743-645: Was the Interim Scientific and Technical Working Group and its task was to prepare the scientific programme for the future space organisation, paying particular attention to the technical and financial implications of its proposals. Lamek Hulthén , from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, was nominated chairman of this group; Reimar Lüst from the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Garching, Germany

7832-466: Was they who, in the early 1950s, were key actors in the process which led to the setting up of CERN , the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Now, as the decade drew to a close, they turned their attention to space. Success was rapid. Within a year of the first formal discussions being held amongst scientists, European governments had set up a preparatory commission in order to explore

7921-472: Was to be created in the first category, a so-called Director of Programmes and Planning (DPP), whose task it would be to prepare draft programmes of the Organisation, based on the scientific, technical, financial and time implications of the different proposals. The second member of the directorate concerned with forward planning would be the Director of Administration (DA) whose task it would be to prepare policy on

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