The European Centre for Space Records © ESA ECSR
The ESA Archives needs your help - appeal for donations

Throughout 2024 the ESA Archives has been marking the 60th anniversary of the creation of ESA’s forerunners, ELDO and ESRO, with news articles and related content on this portal, and openings of digitised collections in the SHIP database.

The process of research behind this has highlighted some of the most pressing gaps in our holdings and has prompted this appeal to ESA colleagues and to the wider space community: can you help us fill them in?

We are seeking donations of material related to the European space organisations COPERS, ELDO and ESRO which operated throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, prior to the creation of ESA in 1975. So, if you worked for one of them, or worked with colleagues who did, you may have inherited documentation from this period and you might be exactly who we need to hear from!

In return, we can help you to ensure that your information is safely preserved for future generations in line with professional archival standards. 

What exactly are we looking for?

While the ECSR in Frascati safeguards a sizeable amount of technical information from ESRO, it is a sad reality that a lot of documentation has disappeared with the passage of time. The situation related to ELDO is even more critical: nearly all the technical documentation produced by it, apart from a particularly small collection hosted at the Historical Archives of the EU in Florence, has been lost.

We would be incredibly grateful for donations of any material related to this chapter of Europe’s space heritage, ranging from papers and photographs to models and memorabilia. However, we are particularly keen to hear from anyone with technical documentation, since this information would be incredibly valuable to us in reconstructing the legacy of ESA’s predecessors.

To give you an idea of these kinds of documents and data, you can consult ESA SP-1006: the Index of ELDO Publications, in the SHIP database, which include examples of studies produced by ELDO.

A clear out of your files could make a huge difference!

Could you spare five minutes of your time to check your personal or professional files for any items that shed light on this chapter of ESA’s pre-history? To make a donation, find out more, or for any other queries, you can get in touch with us at Archive.Services@esa.int.

Thank you very much in advance from the Archives team.