With this latest opening of historical publications, our current focus on 60 years of European cooperation in space reaches a pinnacle: from today copies of the Annual Reports issued by ESA’s lesser-documented predecessor ELDO, from 1966 to 1972, are also available in the SHIP database.
As a result, the ESA Archives is very pleased to offer the annual reporting of both of our predecessors (ELDO and ESRO) online, and for download. This watershed moment means that an unbroken timeline of reporting on European cooperation in space, from the very first formal organisations to today, is now accessible to the general public with just a click!
ELDO was the European Launcher Development Organisation (or, more formally, the European Space Vehicle Launcher Development Organisation), established with the entry into force of its Convention in February 1964 by six European nations, and Australia as an Associate Member, to develop a satellite launch vehicle for Europe.
However, both its creation and its eventual amalgamation with its sister organisation ESRO, the European Space Research Organisation, to form ESA, were the outcome of processes which took place over several years and often defy quick summaries (even if such a summary is offered in a ‘Sequence of main ELDO events (1961-1966)’ in an annex to the 1966 Report!) The ELDO story is generally considered to begin with preliminary meetings under the aegis of the Council of Europe leading to the Strasbourg Conference in January 1961, attended by national delegates from 12 European nations. (As a result, it published this Report to the Council of Europe on its activities from 1965 until 1972.) Conversely, its eventual liquidation took place in increments from the end of 1972, with the cancellation of the Europa III launcher programme, until the foundation of ESA in May 1975, when its Convention ceased to operate. We suspect that is why this series of Annual Reports comes to an end with the 1972 edition.
These reports both give details of these processes and offer valuable insights into the complicated and intricate history of ELDO which, as we have noted before, is less documented in the holdings of the ECSR and the Historical Archives of the European Union than its partner ESRO, and as a result, lesser understood. These complications are also mirrored in the fraught history of the first decade of development of European launchers, with reports frequently peppered with adjectives such as ‘critical’, ‘regrettable’, ‘fateful’, ‘uncertain’ or ‘unfavourable’ to describe the challenges ELDO faced in its operations and in the realisation of its Europa launcher programmes.
Unlike the reports issued by its counterpart ESRO, this series has a stronger focus on formal communication and less on public relations. The reports contain fewer photographs, since ELDO had no in-house photographers (resulting also in fewer visual records of its personnel and day-to-day work) and, as the reports outline, was often forced to make economies with its budget for promotion at exhibitions.
Those interested in reconstructing the history of ELDO, analysing the often contradictory positions and approaches adopted by Member States on European space policy, or investigating the birth pangs of the first European launchers will therefore find much relevant material in this collection.
Where to find reports
ELDO Annual Reports (1966-1972): Find out more about the ELDO Annual Reports and how to browse the collection in SHIP
ESRO General Reports (1964-1974) and how to browse the collection in SHIP
ESA Annual Reports from 1975
More recent ESA Annual Reports from 2019