Since the launch of this website in January, it has been a busy winter of digitisation activities for the ESA Archives team. Now spring is here we see the results and are delighted to conclude the first quarter of 2023 with new image and document collections available online. This week is the turn of images, as we open pictures from 1974 in the SHIP database.
It's rather apt that the first year we are opening is such a momentous one. 1974 stands on the threshold of a new chapter in European space collaboration – it is the last of the ESRO/ELDO years, witnessing the fruition of many of the projects initiated by these organisations, while it also looks forward to the new chapter that began with the creation of ESA in 1975. The photograph (from the ESRO/ESTEC stand at Dutch Firato biennial exhibition for audio and video equipment) shows some of the first ESA posters being given out to the public in anticipation!
The images from 1974, as a result, largely celebrate technical achievements. In documenting the assembly of components, they show satellites such as Cos-B, Meteosat and Geos taking physical form after existing for many years only on paper! However, they also include photographs from the ten year anniversary celebrations for ESRO in March 1974 . To see these new images, search for ‘1974’ in the SHIP database.
On the wider European stage, 1974 witnessed the Carnation Revolution, commemorated in Portugal on 25 April each year. The espionage scandal now known as the Guillaume affair rocked Germany and led to the resignation of Chancellor Willy Brandt in May, and reminds us of the enduring shadow of our past. While the year ended with the declaration of the Republic of Malta on 13 December 1974 and concrete evidence of increased European integration with the creation of the European Council at the December 1974 Paris summit, as an informal forum for discussion between heads of state or government of the EU member states. Given formal status in 1992, and becoming an Official EU Institution in 2009, the European Council today brings together EU leaders to set the EU's political agenda. It represents the highest level of political cooperation between EU countries.
And, with more lighthearted European culture and cooperation in mind, today also marks the 49th anniversary of Abba winning the Eurovision song contest with Waterloo, on 6 April 1974. (Some of our team are already looking forward to Eurovision 2023 next month!)
