• 1954 – Graduated from the Ecole de l’air
• 1950s – Launch pad director at France’s Colomb-Bechar launch site, participating in the firing of the Veronique launcher
• 1962-1970 – Worked for CNES, first as an Engineer with the Sounding Rocket Division and from 1964 as Head of Mission for the Veronique AGI-V52 launch campaign. Also directed the launch campaign for the Diamont Diapason satellite.
• 1970-1973 – Deputy Director for Launch Operations for ELDO
• 1974 – returned to CNES
• 1982-1985 – Director of the CNES Guiana Space Centre
• 1985-1996 – ESA Technical Director and Director of ESTEC
• 2006 – Chairman of the of the Steering Committee of the CNES-IFHE—CNES Alumni Association Rocket-Probes workshop

• French geophysicist, spent the International Geophysical Year (1957-8) as member of the second Antarctic expedition in Adelie Land
• 1961 - joined CNRS as Director of the Ionospheric Research Group
• 1965 - CNES Director of Programmes and Planning and, from 1972 to 1975, Deputy Director General in charge of Programmes and Industrial Policy
• 1975 - ESA Director of Future Programmes and Planning and Deputy Director General
• 1980-1983 - Led Commission of the National Museum of Science and Industry
• 1986-1995 - Directed the national meteorological service, MétéoFrance. He was also Chairman of the EUMETSAT Council from 1990-95, and in 1991 he became Vice-President of the World Meteorological Organisation.
• 1995-1996 - President of CNES

Lebeau joined ESA in 1975 as Deputy Director General and Director of Future Programmes and Planning under the Director Generalship of Roy Gibson. He left the Agency in 1980, but as Director General of Météo France significantly contributed to the successful cooperation between ESA and EUMETSAT. As President of CNES he also became Head of the French Delegation to ESA.

• Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough (UK) directing a programme on the technical requirements for an astronomical satellite
• 1962-1968 – Head of COPERS PF Division, Technical Director of ESTEC for ESRO (and Director of ESTEC until end of 1965)
• 1968 - Left ESRO to take up a senior research post in the UK Science Research Council

Albert Lines was nominated Technical Director of the European Space Technology Centre (ESTEC) in 1962, and was initially also in charge of the establishment. Subsequently in 1964, under his mandate, Adrien Kesselring was nominated as the first Director of ESTEC. Lines took on the role of acting Director General of ESRO for a period in 1966 while Pierre Auger was absent for health reasons.

• Graduated in engineeering
• 1946-1954 – Worked for SNECMA (Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation) the French aerospace engine manufacturer
• 1964-1972 – Various positions at DVL/DFVLR/GfW, including as Head of the DFVLR Space Projects Section and Director of the GfW, the Society for Space Research (Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung), now part of the DLR
• 1975 – Joined the newly created ESA as Director of Communication Satellites
• 1978 – Became ESA Director of Applications Programme

As Director of Communication Satellites, Luksch managed the ECS, AEROSAT and MAROTS Programmes. In 1978 he became Director of Applications Programmes which took responsibility for all approved telecommunications and earth-observation programmes, including Meteosat.

• 1961 – graduated in engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique
• 1964 - Joined the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, research in external geophysics. From 1971-1973 he was seconded to the Ministry for Industrial and Scientific Development
• 1974 - Various positions in the French Space Agency (CNES): Head of the Research Programmes Division (1974-1975); Head of the Planning and Projects Division (1975-1978); Director of Programmes and Planning (1979-1984); Deputy Director General (1984) 
• 1984-1987 –French delegate to the ESA Council, and Chairman of ESA’s Administrative and Finance Committee
• 1987 - Director for Space Programmes at Aérospatiale
• 1989 - Director General of CNES
• 1990-1997 - Fourth ESA Director General
• 1997-2002 - Chairman and CEO of Arianespace(1997 to 2002); Chairman until his retirement in 2007

During Luton’s secondment to the Ministry for Industrial and Scientific Development he was Chargé de Mission at the Service des Programmes des Organismes de Recherche (Sepor), involved in the negotiations leading to the establishment of ESA. In his time as CNES he led many negotiations with European partners on cooperation agreements such as those for the Ariane launcher development programmes. He was also French delegate to the ESA Council, and Chairman of the ESA Administrative and Finance Committee.

He became Director General of ESA in 1990 and served until 1997. ESA conducted several successful space science missions during his mandate: the Ulysses mission, the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) were all carried out in the 1990s. During this period, Ariane 4 also successfully launched Meteosat-5 and -6 and ERS-1 and -2. The go-ahead to develop Envisat and, in cooperation with Eumetsat, to initiate MetOp and Meteosat Second Generation was given at the ESA Ministerial Council in Granada in 1992.

• 1945 - Research Officer the Centre National de Recherches Scientifique, remained associated with CNRS until 1953 with various international fellowships.
• 1953-1954 - Faculty of Sciences at Bordeaux
• 1954 - University of Paris, becoming Professor of physical theory and high energy physics from 1959-1989
• 1972 - Council of CNES and President from 1974 to 1976
• 1973-1975 - Chairman of ESRO Council (and subsequently the first Chairman of ESA Council)
• 1980s - Director of La Villette (1983 to 1985) and President of the Administrative Council of the Cité des Sciences at La Villette (1985 to 1987)

French physicist Lévy chaired the ESRO Council during a critical period of organisational and programmatic changes. As a result of the Package Deals, which allowed member states optional participation in applications programmes and organised programmes on a national basis, France had major responsibility for the Ariane launcher, Germany the Spacelab programme, and Britain the maritime communications satellite, MAROTS.

• 1950-1960 - Research physicist with the Max Planck Institute in Munich and Göttingen spent time at several renowned universities in the US
• 1963 - Head of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics at Garching
• 1962-1990 - various positions with COPERS/ESRO/ESA, third Director General of ESA from 1984-1990
• 1965 - Honorary Professor for physics at the Technical University of Munich
• 1968-1972 - Chaired the German Research Council (1969-1972) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (1968-1972)
• 1972-1984 - President of the Max Planck Gesellschaft
• 1972-1973 - Helped establish the European Science Foundation and member of its Space Science Committee
• 1989-1999 - President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
• 1999 - Founder and Chairman of the Jacobs University Bremen

From 1962 to 1964, Lüst was Scientific Director of COPERS, and helped draw up the scientific programme for ESRO. He was one of the first members of the Launching Programme Advisory Committee, which he chaired until 1970. Simultaneously, he was first Chairman and later Vice-Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee and represented Germany on the ESRO Council, being its Vice-Chairman from 1968 to 1970. He was involved with the first ESRO rockets, the Skylark sounding rocket programme, and participated in many other ESRO projects.

Lüst was Director General of ESA from 1984 until 1990, dealing with Ariane 5, Europe’s participation in the future International Space Station, and Horizon 2000. He played a key role in the launch of ESA’s History Project and the preservation of ESA’s historical archives, establishing a deposit agreement between ESA and the Historical Archives of the European Union.

See also: Interview with Reimar Lüst from the Oral History of Europe in Space Collection