Back in 1997, the memoirs of former ESOC staff member Madeleine Schaefer - How to Survive in Space - were published as part of celebrations for the first 30 years of ESOC. Delving into them during the process of research for this 50th anniversary year, led us to reflect on the different kinds of recollections that find their way into Archives and the importance of archival material as a resource for publishing them.
The personal recollections contained in the holdings of the ESA Archives generally take the form of handwritten notes, either contained within administrative or technical document collections, or as collections themselves. An example of the latter are the sets of personal notebooks left to the Archives by some of ESA’s former directors, senior management and staff, giving valuable information which can be used in the production of more formal published memoirs.
Recollections or facts?
Sometimes these sources cover events in common, and as Schaefer herself notes in the preface to How to Survive in Space that can result in different recollections! In her words: “all the events... are described as I remember them. Other people may remember them differently”. That facet of personal recollection is an important element in their difference from purely factual sources.
Schaefer’s book includes just such an example in the story told by two ESOC staff members (Hans Schramm and Kurt Debatin) of a VIP visit by Lord Mountbatten in 1972. The same event was also described by another participant – the then ESRO Director of Administration Roy Gibson – in a separate book, aptly called Mémoires/Recollections (constructed around interviews of Roy Gibson by André Lebeau, who went on to work with him for five years as ESA’s Director of Future Programmes and Planning).
While all agree that Gibson came in person from Paris to supervise the visit, the two published accounts vary on how much Lord Mountbatten, former Viceroy of India, knew Gibson from his time in military service in south Asia. Gibson states that Mountbatten recognised him immediately and goes on to talk about their reminiscences. Whereas Debatin remembers Mountbatten quizzing Gibson on his chain of command. And on a more prosaic note, they also disagree on Mountbatten’s choice of clothing: Gibson mentions a Hawaiian shirt where Schaefer’s sources talk about a khaki shirt. (Frustratingly, the photographic records of the visit held in the ESA Archives are in black and white, but while inconclusive, the shirt appears to be plain, not patterned!)
Another case seems to be the story of the naming of the Ariane launcher back in the early 1970s, told in two other books and through the brief factual records of the relevant meetings.
A short line in the official records, states simply that the name Ariane was adopted at ESRO’s Administrative and Finance Committee in September 1973, as the majority choice.
Swiss delegate Peter Creola, who chaired this meeting, and André Lebeau (then Deputy Director General of CNES, the French space agency who would develop the rocket, and part of the French delegation) fleshed out the story in their published memoirs. (Peter Creola, Advocate of Space and Entretiens avec André Lebeau, by Alain Gaubert.)
Both recount that they circulated a sheet of paper at the ESRO Council meeting on 1 August, asking for proposals. And both concur that suggestions included Phoenix and Vega, with the latter as the frontrunner.
While their accounts of the discussions over names and of the AFC meeting diverge, each arrives at a point where the French delegation has objected to Vega (after it was discovered that it was also a Belgian brand of beer) and the German delegation has vetoed Phoenix. And Ariane? Creola suggests that the French delegation introduced it (along with Penelope, which was also rejected), and that it was now the only option left on the table. Lebeau states that Ariane was proposed and then imposed by French Minister Jean Charbonnel.
This poses some interesting questions on how much trust we can place in such sources, and on whether one can be preferred over another. Perhaps what is fundamental is to keep Schaefer’s caveat in mind, to acknowledge that memories can be subject to failure and to use them with caution and awareness that each recollection adds another thread to the story?
The technical side: lessons learned and memories
Conversely, it might be an easy assumption that technical records fall into the category of factual documentation, as a result of their scientific aims and methodology. But the process of knowledge management that aims to preserve information obtained and capture lessons learned for the future, involves setting down memories which could be considered much more subjective.
Books such as Il Cacciatore di Comete,by Paolo Ferri (former Spacecraft Operations Manager for the Rosetta mission), or L'Espace, du rêve à la réalité: Un grand bon pour l'Europe spatiale, by Marius Le Fèvre give us perfect examples of the memoirs from a career dedicated to technical operations and at the heart of major European scientific achievements. This kind of knowledge can also be used as a primary source when it comes to writing the history of the relevant missions.
Programmatic recording - oral history
Sometimes this recording is conducted in media such as audio rather than documentation – such as the interviews with key personalities that were conducted throughout the 1990s and 2000s as part of the Oral History of Europe in Space project, an ESA collaboration with the European University Institute in Florence.
While the content of the interviews provides researchers with raw material, the information recorded is dependent on the questions asked by the different interviewers and on their guiding of the narrative. And the extent to which these interviews contain recollections in the form of personal anecdotes often depends on the interviewer’s indulgence of interesting diversions!
The 2008 interview with former ESA Director of Administration, George Van Reeth, gives us a personal flourish in his account of the original construction works undertaken in 1976 to ESA’s Headquarters in rue Nikis, Paris. Talking of ESA’s first Director General, Roy Gibson, Van Reeth recalls: “when the building was almost finished, he said it reminded him of the toilets at [London] Waterloo Station”. Van Reeth goes on to defend his project, saying “He was very wrong: although it dates from 1976, the building is still very suitable; it hasn't aged too much”. And those who worked there would no doubt agree that its white exterior tiling was certainly iconic.
Another key consideration is how people wish to portray themselves. While keeping in mind that Mémoires/Recollections is an ESA coproduction, it is interesting to note that of its 280 pages, Gibson devotes almost 120 of them to his decade in ESRO and ESA, clearly reflecting their centrality, or the desire to focus on them. And of these, there is much more about ESRO than ESA, with a strong focus on the work that went into getting the house in order for the creation of ESA and on the subsequent consolidation of the organisation and its major programmes, including Ariane and Spacelab. The story of the new Nikis building is not mentioned at all. (But, in a further diversion on the topic, a 1977 article on the new headquarters by G. Nicols from the Directorate of Administration, in ESA Bulletin 8, talks about the façade being likened to part of Victoria Station in London... and gives yet more evidence of the particular nature of memories).
In all cases, the outcome is human and personal, in contrast to the sometimes bald accounts of proceedings in official papers. And the stories told give us a window into what was going on behind the scenes, and insight into the motivation of those involved.
Memories and reconstruction
Of course, memories can be conserved in archives, but archives can also be consulted during the process of setting them down on paper. Among authors of books on European space, both Roy Gibson and Marius Le Fèvre used the ESA Archives to confirm or correct their memories, or received photographic support from the Archives team.
The future?
When we talk about memory we think immediately about the past. But we also need to give thought to preserving today’s memories for the future. And in particular, we need consider how social media will change this. Are we ready for the challenges of conserving exchanges on digital platforms? Memories are for everyone, rather than the property of just one person – sharing and safeguarding them makes a vital contribution to our collective and institutional heritage.
Donating your memories too!
Since the launch of this portal and regular openings of material, we are delighted to have spoken to several people who wanted to share their relatives’ memories of working in European space. We are always happy to discuss how we can help preserve these important personal recollections – contact us at Archive.Services@esa.int.
Selected space memoirs for further reading:
Peter Creola, Advocate of Space
Il Cacciatore di Comete,by Paolo Ferri
Mémoires/Recollections by Roy Gibson (Interviews with Roy Gibson by André Lebeau)
L' Espace du rêve à la réalité : un grand bond pour l'Europe spatiale, by Marius Le Fèvre,
Entretiens avec André Lebeau, by Alain Gaubert
How to Survive in Space, by Madeleine Schaefer