• Educated in Amsterdam, Master’s in Mathematics
• 1950s – Worked at the Mathematical Centre at Amsterdam, a government-sponsored institute carrying out research and consultancy work in pure and applied mathematics
• 1955 – Joined the Technical University of Delft, where he completed his doctoral thesis in technical sciences
• 1957-1964 – Scientific Adviser to Bull Netherlands and Engineer Advisor to Compagnie des Machines Bull in Paris
• Co-founder of the Netherlands Computer Society
• 1964 – Started working for Philips, becoming Computer Systems Manager (Philips Electrologica BV) and Plans and Programmes Manager for Unidata
• 1968-1973 – Professor of Project Management and Applied Mathematics as Delft University
• 1975-1977 – ESA’s Director of ESTEC

• French engineer and space scientist, based from 1953 to 1961 at the Missile Flight Test Centres in Bretigny and Colomb Bechar
• General Secretary of the French Committee for Space Activities
• 1962-1971 - Director for International Affairs at CNES and French representative on various ESRO and ELDO committees. Chaired the CETS Space Technology Committee in 1966.
• 1972-1976 - both CNES Director General and a French representative to the ESA Council
• 1976-1986 - Director of ESA's Spacelab programme until 1980, then ESA's Director of Space Transportation Systems
• 1986-1993 - Chaired the French Association for Aeronautics and Astronautics

After 20 years leading France’s space programme, Bignier moved to ESA in 1976 to direct the European Spacelab. Subsequently, as Director of Space Transportation systems, he was responsible for the Ariane, Spacelab, Space Station, Hermes and Microgravity programmes.

See also: Interview with Michel Bignier from the Oral History of Europe in Space Collection

• French astrophysicist, associated with the French national space programme since 1959, when he was in charge of launches of the second generation of French Véronique sounding rockets
• 1962-1972 - Scientific and Technical Director at CNES, oversaw development of the Diamant rocket
• 1972 - Chief Scientist at CNES, and then advisor the Director General in 1982
• Participated in NASA's Voyager mission and the Soviet Vega mission to Venus. Principal investigator behind the first launches of experimental balloons in the atmosphere of Venus in 1985.

During Blamont’s period at CNES (and ESRO’s first ten years) he served on ESRO' Launching Programme Advisory Committee, was French delegate to the Scientific and Technical Committee which advised the ESRO Council, member of the Scientific Working Group in his field, the Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology section, and sat on the Geophysics panel.

• French engineer with degree from the Ecole Supérieure des Télécommunications (Paris 1951) and Masters in Electronics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1952)
• 1952 – worked from French National Centre for Telecommunications (CNET), became head of the Flight Test department in 1957
• 1961 – Assigned by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications to COPERS as Scientific and Technical Assistant to the Chairman
• 1964 – joined ESRO as Head of Instrumentation Division at ESTEC
• 1968 – Became Deputy Director of ESTEC and Head of the Satellite and Sounding Rocket department

When ESRO was formed in 1964, Blassel was appointed to lead the Instrumentation Division at ESTEC in the Netherlands, responsible for the telemetry and remote control equipment on board the ESRO-1 and ESRO-2 satellites. He also led the studies into television distribution satellites for the European Conference for Telecommunications Satellites.

• 1931 - Professor at the Technical University of Danzig
• 1934-1937 - Professor at the Technical University of Aachen
• 1936-1945 - Director of the German Aerospace Centre (Deutschen Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt)
• 1945-1954 – Deported to the USSR, worked as a scientist and at the German Aeronautics Collective
• 1954 - Returned to Germany, Professor in Aeronautical Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Rector from 1958-59
• 1956 - Chairman of the German Aircraft Committee of the Federal Ministry of Transport
• 1950s - Member of the German Commission for Space Research of the Federal Ministry for Atomic Energy
• 1964-1966 - First Chairman of ELDO

• 1946-1956 – Degree from Uppsala University, Doctorate in Meteorology from Stockholm University
• 1957-1990 - Director of the International Meteorological Institute in Stockholm
• 1961 - 1990 – Professor of Meteorology at the University of Stockholm until his retirement in 1990
• 1964-1967 - Swedish delegate to the ESRO Scientific and Technical Committee and member of the Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology Scientific Working Group (1964-1965); ESRO Scientific Director (1965-1967)
• Served on various Committees: Vice Chairman of the Science Research Council of Sweden; first Chairman of the organising committee for the Global Atmospheric Research Programme at the World Meteorological Organization
• 1988 – 1997 - first Chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Bolin led the first sounding rocket project for upper atmosphere research at Kronogård, a US-Swedish collaboration, in the early 1960s. He was the Swedish delegate to ESRO's Scientific and Technical Committee in 1964 and 1965, and simultaneously a member of the Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology Scientific Working Group. From 1965 to 1967, he became Scientific Director, the chief scientific administrative position at ESRO. During his tenure the ESRANGE facilities in Kiruna were inaugurated, with the first sounding rockets launched at the end of 1966. He also oversaw the early negotiations with CETS over the introduction of telecommunications projects within ESRO.

• Anglo-Austrian Mathematician and astronomer, best known for developing the steady state model of the universe with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold as an alternative to the Big Bang theory
• 1943-1949, 1952-1954 - Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
• 1945-1948 – Assistant Lecturer in Mathematics, University of Cambridge
• 1948-1954 – University Lecturer, Cambridge
• 1954 - Professor of Mathematics at King's College London
• 1967-1971 – Director General of ESRO
• Master of Churchill College from 1983 to 1990
• Chief Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Defence (1971-77), Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy (1977-80) and Chairman of the Natural Environment Research Council (1980-84) and President of the Hydrographic Society (1985–1987)

Bondi was UK candidate for Director General of ESRO in 1967. At the November 1968 European Space Conference in Bad Godesberg, Bondi secured an agreed three-year level of resources, returning the organisation to legality. At the December 1970 ministerial conference, Bondi successfully averted the threat of the breakup of ESRO into national research programmes, instead promoting internal reform.

• 1961 – Graduated from Paris University in Physics and Astronomy
• 1968 – Doctorate in Physics from Paris University – Sorbonne
• 1969-1983 – Director of the CNRS Laboratoire de Physique Stellaire et Planétaire and from 1977 Director of Research
• 1977-1979 – Chairman of ESA’s Science Advisory Committee
• 1983-2001 – Director of ESA’s Science Programme
• 2001-2006 – Advisor to the Director General of ESA on the Aurora programme of planetary exploration
• 2002-2003 – Joint Director General for Science at CNES
• 2002-2010 – Chairman of COSPAR
• 2002 - Professor at the University of Liège, Belgium
• 2003 – 2013 – Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Honorary Director from 2013

As Director of the CNRS LPSP, Bonnet’s laboratory developed the telescope of the Halley Multicolour Camera that flew on board ESA’s Giotto Mission. During his subsequent term as Director of the Science Programme, he established ESA’s first long term science programme for 1985 to 2005, Horizon 2000, and defined the European strategy for Earth Sciences and Observation, now called the Living Planet programme.  
Horizon 2000 was based on four major science themes, implemented as flagship missions, along with a flexible part made of a mix of medium missions and smaller projects. The plan also identified a number of longer-term science endeavours to be studied in preparation for post-Horizon 2000 missions. Missions already approved, including Giotto, Hipparcos, HST and Ulysses with NASA and ISO were integrated into the plan. The flagship missions (cornerstones) included the SOHO/Cluster, XMM-Newton, Herschel and Rosetta missions. The first two medium missions approved were the ESA Huygens probe to Titan on board NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn and Integral - the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory in cooperation with Russia. A new plan covering the period 1995-2015, called Horizon 2000 plus, was subsequently endorsed in 1996. Under this plan, the Planck mission (later merged with Herschel into one development programme), Mars-Express mission, SMART-1 Lunar mission, GAIA, BepiColombo and LISA Pathfinder missions were approved. ESA's involvement in the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope mission was also decided in 1998, during Bonnet’s mandate.

With its many successful missions the Horizon 2000 planning approach introduced by Bonnet enabled the European scientific community to play a leading role in many areas of space science.

See also: Interview with Roger Bonnet from the Oral History of Europe in Space Collection

• 1944 – Doctorate in Law from the University of Paris
• 1940s-1950s – Passed the entrance examination for the judiciary, assigned to the French Ministry of Justice with several secondments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Defence to carry out various activities outside France
• 1962 – Joined ELDO as Legal Advisor in charge of External Relations
• 1969-1973 – Secretary of the European Space Conference (position shared by Bourély and Hans  Kaltenecker)
• 1973 Joined ESRO, becoming Legal Adviser
• 1975-1983 – On the creation of ESA became Legal Adviser, Head of the Legal and Intellectual Property Department, until retirement in 1983

Within ELDO, ESRO and ESA, Bourély was responsible for the preparation of the various legal instruments: conventions, implementing regulations, constitution texts, activities programmes, agreements with Member States and frameworks for international cooperation.

• Italian aerospace engineer, Professor at the School of Aerospace Engineering at Sapienza University Rome and Colonel in the Italian Air Force
• Architect of the San Marco project, the Italian-US collaboration which sent into orbit the first all-European satellite in December 1964
• Vice Chairman of GEERS and COPERS in the early 1960s
• 1988 - Vice-President of the Italian Space Agency until his resignation and retirement in 1993.

Broglio was chief figure in the Italian national space programme and its relations with NASA, ESRO and ELDO. He was one of the Vice-Chairmen of the study group for space research GEERS and in the subsequent preparatory commission COPERS. He was instrumental in the creation of the Italian ESRO institution, ESRIN, proposed as a research laboratory and located in Frascati.