The process leading to the creation of ELDO, the European Launcher Development Organisation (or European Space Vehicle Launcher Development Organisation), began in 1961 when national delegates from twelve European countries convened at an intergovernmental conference in Strasbourg on 30 January. Later in the year, delegates at the Lancaster House conference of October 1961 agreed the schedule for the proposed five-year Initial Programme (IP) and established a Preparatory Group to set up the organisation and coordinate the IP, which in its turn created a Technical and Administrative Committee, followed shortly after by a Secretariat.
The ELDO Convention subsequently opened for signature on 29 March 1962, and entered into force on 29 February 1964, generally considered as the date for the formal creation of the organisation.
ELDO then operated from 1964 to 1975 when it was merged with ESRO to form the European Space Agency in May 1975. From 1965 until 1972, it published a Report to the Council of Europe on the year’s activities, with the first (1965) Report additionally dealing ‘with the work of the Organisation from its inception in 1961 up to the end of 1965’, in the words of its President of Council, Professor Günther Bock, in his Foreword to the 1966 Report. (From 1967 the word ‘Annual’ was added before Report to the Council of Europe.)
The reports from 1968 largely follow a standard format and offer a review of operational activities and functioning of the secretariat for the relevant year, including external relations, prefaced by an introductory section and followed by a chapter on ELDO in the context of European space policy. The body of each report is followed by a series of annexes which generally include lists of meetings, delegates, resolutions and recommendations and publications.
The physical ELDO Reports to the Council of Europe are held in the ECSR in Frascati, and came to the Archives as a set of unique copies from ESA HQ in Paris. Some duplicate copies were also received from HQ, possibly originating from the Directorate of Space Transportation.
This collection comprises the digitised versions of the all the Annual Reports produced by ELDO in the ECSR holdings, covering the period 1966 to 1972. There is an English-language report for each of these years, and French-language reports for 1970 and 1972. Regrettably, the ECSR does not hold a copy of the first ELDO report from 1965. (It is only thanks to the references above and to a feasibility study undertaken in advance of the ESA History Project, which investigated what happened to ELDO documentation when the organisation was wound up, that we can even know for sure that a report was produced in this year.)
To browse the collection of ELDO and ESRO Reports, enter the SHIP database and search for ‘Annual Report ’.
Once you have selected a copy, SHIP’s image viewer allows you to select your preferred viewing mode by clicking the 'image viewer' icon on the right of the top header bar.
You can download pdf copies of the reports directly from the SHIP image viewer screen. Simply select ‘download pdf’ from the top menu bar of the viewer.