To conclude our programme for the first half of 2024, we have today made available the ESA F series of historical publications. This series offers snapshots of the public relations material published by ESA over almost a decade from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, across the whole range of activities and programmes.
The ‘f’ in ESA F stands for folder, since the material in the physical collection held in the ECSR consists of a set of folders with inserts. Selected inserts in either English or French have been digitised to create the digital collection now available in the SHIP database, comprising 16 publications released from 1986 to 1994, produced for promotion of special events or as marketing material for ESA and its services. The collection therefore stands in contrast to the ESA Brochures, produced at the same time for public relations material, but with less ephemeral content, more technical information, and in a lengthier book format.
We are not sure why the ESA F series, which existed for less than a decade, was so short lived. Perhaps its brevity was the result of its format, dropped in favour of more traditional brochure formats, or for more freedom with the size of publications, or with the development of digital alternatives from the mid 1990s?
At present, the collection ranges from ESA F-01, from 1986, on the Meteosat Operational Programme (What’s the forecast?), to the last ESA F, number 35, which appropriately talked about its relative ERS, the European remote sensing satellite in 1994, and its New Views of the Earth. It also includes the French-language folder (ESA F-33) introducing the ESA 2000 scientific programme, ESA F-26 with a special format for the European retrievable carrier – EURECA - and various ESA F produced to celebrate anniversaries such as ten years of data from the IUE mission (ESA F09), or ten years of the Earthnet programme (ESA F-10), both in 1988.
Highlights from late 1980s also include two French-language folders, Un envol vers les années 90 (ESA F-13) on development of the liquid propellant boosters for Ariane-4 and the 1988 ESA F-15 on ESOC and ESA’s space operations activities.
The collection also includes some rather more niche publications – anyone interested in the history of financial software will no doubt enjoy ESA F-28 introducing ECOS, the ESA costing software in 1992. It comes with plenty of screenshots which might provoke nostalgia for those of us who can remember computing in the 1990s!
Further information
Read more about the ESA F collection and how to browse it in SHIP.