As 2024 draws to a close, our focus on the 60th anniversary of the creation ELDO and ESRO shifts towards the final period of ESA pre-history, and the road to the establishment of ESA in May 1975 as the result of their merger.
The last years of the European Space Research Organisation, ESRO, leading up to this pivotal moment, also dealt with a parallel shift in emphasis in its research activities, with the move consolidated under Hermann Bondi’s Directorship (see November’s Object of the Month) towards application satellite programmes.
The ESA-X collection of material in the ECSR contains a set of documents which offer a fascinating insight into this, also representing the very first chapter in the story of ESA research and activity in telecommunications and in what went on to become the European Telecommunications Satellite programme. And in a particularly appropriate twist, one of the names involved in this work – Roy Gibson – also had a key role in the organisational transition. Gibson went on to become Acting Director General of ESRO during its final months and was subsequently appointed as the first Director General of ESA. We don’t know the precise nature of his participation, which was probably as Director of Administration – the Directorate responsible for contracts, but can see his handwritten initials, and those of Pierre Blassel, Deputy Director of ESTEC and Head of the Satellite and Sounding Rocket department, who led the studies, on some of the documents.
This series of 35 references outlines work undertaken in the five-year period from 1967 to 1972, following a 1966 request from the European Conference on Satellite Communications (CETS) for ESRO to conduct a six-month feasibility study for an experimental communications satellite programme.
Viewed as a collection, the material details many of the initial steps in what would become the 16-year process from proposal to launch of the first European regional satellite communications system, the ECS satellite, in 1983: from ESRO’s first technical studies in the latter half of 1967, through the production of progress reports to the industrial consultation of autumn 1969, recommendations of a joint working group on telecommunications in early 1970, issuing of tenders in autumn 1970, and the proposals submitted by industry contractors throughout 1970 and 1971. It ends with a tantalising glimpse forward, with ESA-X 29 from February 1972 outlining a programme for the execution of Phase 2 of the European Communications Satellite (ECS) project - its experimental and technological phase, following approval by ESRO Council on 20 Dec 1971.
At the same time, it present us with some challenges in how we map what seem to be frequent changes in the name of the project, or conflicting projects (such as EURAFRICA project, CETS project, European Satellite Programme for Telephony and TV Distribution, or Symphonie, and many variations of European (Tele)Communication(s) Satellite or System) and in the precise roles and relationships of the organisations involved, including CETS, EBU, ESC and CEPT!
CETS, for example, was the Conférence européenne pour les télécommunications par satellites. Created in 1963, it was a series of meetings rather than a formal organisation, and in November 1966, the ESRO Council agreed that ESRO should undertake the initial study on behalf of CETS. When CETS ceased activity in 1970, its founder CEPT (Conférence Européenne des Postes et Télécommunications, the coordinating body for European state telecommunications and postal organisations) seems to step back into the picture, effectively taking on its role. Whereas the first references to the European Broadcasting Union (an alliance of public service media organisations which operated the Eurovision system) and the European Space Conference (ESC) date from an ECS meeting in July 1967, eight months after the original commission, following which ESRO was asked to design a television relay satellite meeting the needs of the European Broadcasting Union. It appears that several concurrent studies were undertaken after this under the auspices of ESRO, and the introduction to the October 1969 report on the industrial consultation attempted to clear up the resulting confusion with a clear timeline, which we have reproduced below (along with some further future milestones it outlined)!
We also consulted Arturo Russo’s study on The early development of the Telecommunications Satellite Programme in ESRO for further clarification on this institutional framework and to fill in some of the missing narrative.
Russo confirms that in 1966, a tentative framework drawn up by CETS entrusted ESRO with the management of the experimental project, in co-operation with ELDO (the European Launcher Development Organisation, who would supply the necessary launcher) and a formal agreement was drawn up for the feasibility study.
After passing through various CETS committees, the resulting ESRO study was discussed at the second meeting of the ESC, held in Rome in July 1967 (where the timeline below tells us that further studies were commissioned). The entry of the EBU into this story as the customer and the associated Eurafrica project happened shortly after:
“At the CETS meeting held immediately after the Rome conference, the EBU Director General officially confirmed the interest in ESRO’s work and requested that it should be pursued with consideration of the EBU requirements.”
CETS therefore agreed on a further grant to ESRO to continue the studies and to design an experimental communications satellite programme to meet the needs of EBU’s Eurovision system. These further studies resulted in proposals for two projects: a system for EBU needs (satellite CETS-C, or Eurafrica) and an experimental system for semi-direct television broadcast (satellite CETS-D or Geovision). All this while at the same time, France and Germany were also working on development of a bilateral satellite project called Symphonie with a similar mission!
In the event, stalemate between the ESRO/CETS Eurafrica programme and the ‘competing’ Symphonie programme was resolved by a fresh study commissioned by the ESC, managed by a working group with representatives from ECS, CEPT, EBU, ESRO and ELDO. The new European Communications Satellite mission, to meet CEPT and EBU requirements, was proposed in April 1970 and included an initial experimental satellite for telephony services and television relay, for launch in 1975, followed by a major satellite for launch in 1980. Following endorsement by CEPT, the ESC decided in July 1970 to develop the project and authorised and funded its first stage. And the long-awaited and definitive decision that ESRO could undertake application satellite programmes came about with the December 1971 approval of the ‘first package deal’ by ESRO Council. This outlined an optional communications satellite programme in line with the plans already established for the CEPT/EBU mission.
More information
We have recently digitised a selection of 27 of these references on ESRO’s telecommunication studies. To browse the material, enter the SHIP database and search for ‘CETS’. You can also find a clickable link to the collection in the list of topics on the SHIP homepage.
Read more about the collection on ESRO Telecommunications Studies.
Arturo Russo - The early development of the Telecommunications Satellite Programme in ESRO (1965-1971).
Timeline to October 1969
(taken from an October 1969 report on the evaluation of the industrial proposals)
- 24 Nov 1966 –CETS asks ESRO to conduct a definition study of a programme for the development of European communication satellites.
- 11 July 1967 - At its Rome meeting, the ESC asks ESRO to make an additional study, with a view to reducing the total cost of the programme and ‘to define a satellite design that would constitute a marked technological step forward in relations to the Franco-German SYMPHONIE project.
- 5 December 1967 – ESRO submits to CETS a second study report with a version of satellite (CETS-C) intended to fulfil the mission defined by the EBU and a version of satellite (CETS-D) intended to provide semi-direct distribution of television programmes to small-sized ground antennae.
- January 1968 – CETS asks ESRO to continue its work and produce technical specifications for a CETS-C satellite and to prepare a call for tenders.
- 14 November 1968 – At its Bad Godesberg meeting, ESC entrusts a special Governmental Conference with the final decision on the programme envisaged by CETS.
- 30 June 1969 – EBU informs ESC that its Council meeting on 20 November 1969 would decide whether to convene an Extraordinary General Assembly of EBU to take a position on the different solutions for television distribution satellites. It asks the ESC to be informed by that date on decisions for the development of the CETS satellite.
- 4 July 1969 – ESC establishes a meeting on 18 and 19 November 1969 to settle development of the CETS satellite; asks ESRO to conduct an industrial development study of the CETS satellite; asks the Franco-German SYMPHONIE consortium and the ESRO SYMPHONIE Executive Committee for studies to determine the cost, manufacturing schedule and industrial development plan of a SYMPHONIE satellite modified to meet EBU specifications.
- 9 July 1969 – ESRO sends a circular letter to European firms involved to warn them of the requested consultation.
- 17 July 1969 – the SYMPHONIE Executive Committee entrusts the industrial consortium with these studies.
- 28 July 1969 – ESRO sends consultation documents on supply of television distribution satellites meeting EBU mission requirements to three international groups.
- 13 October 1969 – ESTEC receives proposals.
Planned timings from October 1969
- 18 November 1969 – decision to proceed with the project, commencement authorised by ESRO Council.
- December 1969-February 1970 – project team is formed at ESTEC.
- March 1970 – start of detailed definition studies, with two industrial groups in competition.
- December 1970 – selection of consortium to develop the project.
- January 1971 – development work begins.
- End 1974 – placing in orbit of the first flight model.
Actual further milestones
- April 1970 - the working group on telecommunications presents its programme for a European Communications Satellite system to be operational by 1980, endorsement of the ECS programme by CEPT.
- 20 December 1971 – The ESRO Council agrees on the first ‘Package Deal’. Only the science programme is mandatory. All application satellite programmes (aeronautical, communications and meteorological) are optional.
- 21 September 1973- the arrangement between ESRO and participating states in the first phase of the telecommunications programme enters into force. It foresees the development of the experimental Orbital Test Satellite (OTS).
- 14 February 1977- ESA Council meeting at Ministerial Level in Paris at ministerial level passes a Declaration to undertake a communications satellite programme
- 30 June 1977 - the European Telecommunications Satellite Organisation, EUTELSAT, is established by European postal and telecommunications administrations as an intergovernmental organisation to operate Europe’s first regional satellite system (ECS) on behalf of its member states.
- May 1978 – OTS-2, ESA’s first communications satellite and the first experimental satellite in the programme, is successfully launched (OTS-1 having been lost in launch failure in September 1977).
- 16 June 1983 - ECS-1, the first European regional satellite communications system, launched on an Ariane-1 rocket (L06) from Kourou.