As the ESA Archives team continues its digitisation journey through the 1970s, we have arrived in 1976! We have recently opened the historical picture collections for this year, held by the European Centre for Space Records, which are now available for you to browse in the SHIP database.
Under its current Presidency of the Council of the EU, and ahead of its hosting of next month’s ESA-EU Space Summit, as well as the EU Space Week, in Seville, Spain is very much at the forefront of European space activities in 2023. It has also been an important participant in European cooperation in space from the very start: Spain was a signatory to the Meyrin Agreement in December 1960, which set up the COPERS preparatory commission, which in turn led the way to the formation of ELDO and ESRO in 1964, and the creation of ESA in 1975.
And back in 1976, construction work was taking place at the Villafranca site for what would be officially opened in 1978 as VILSPA, from VILlafranca SPAin, one of ESA's original satellite tracking stations. VILSPA went on to provide telemetry, tracking and command support to satellites including the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), Marecs, the first- and second-generation Meteosats, Hipparcos, ERS-1 and 2, and the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). Images in this 1976 collection, show mounting of the tracking antenna for the Marots satellite for maritime communication (the programme was renamed Marecs in 1978) and the antenna for IUE. Today, the station is part of ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre, founded in 2004 on the Villafranca site.
Other sectors of Spanish society also had successes to celebrate in 1976, including the award of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival to the Spanish film Cría Cuervos, directed by Carlos Saura. Its title – Raise Ravens – referred to a popular saying: ‘raise ravens and they will peck out your eyes’. Acknowledged today as a classic of Spanish cinema and a political and psychological masterpiece, Cría Cuervos was released in January 1976. This was a particular turning point for Spain following the death of General Francisco Franco in November 1975, prior to King Juan Carlos appointing a new President, Adolfo Suárez, in July. Suárez was given responsibility for the transition to democracy, starting with the Political Reform Act, which was approved in a referendum on 15 December 1976, as the year came to a close.
And to neatly close this circle, we note that Suárez was born in Cebreros, which may be familiar to readers as another Spanish tracking station. Home to one of ESA’s two deep-space ground stations since 2004, the site previously hosted a NASA Apollo ground station from the mid-1960s until 1981.
In other parts of Europe, 1976 was also the year that ESA moved into its Paris Headquarters in rue Mario Nikis, on 18 October. You can see some of the photos of the renovation works that were needed before this below.
In the intervening 47 years, the building has once again been entirely remodelled to meet ESA’s needs for a modern, flexible workspace to take us into the future, and after several years in temporary accommodation, HQ staff were glad to return ‘home’ to rue Nikis earlier this year!
More information
More on the history of the Villafranca satellite tracking station.
More on the history of the rue Nikis site in the March Object of the Month on our homepage.
To browse the new images, simply search for ‘1976’ in the SHIP database, or refer to our highlight on SHIP for additional details of its functionalities.
