Our final opening of ESA historical publications for 2025, makes the ESA Scientific and Technical Review (ESA STR) available in the SHIP database. Compared to other ESA periodicals, the STR had a short lifespan, existing between 1975, when it took over from the ESRO/ELDO Scientific and Technical Review, and the end of 1976, when it became the ESA Journal, with a wider scope and content. It therefore embodies the transition from ESRO to ESA and the changes in the objectives of its primary learned publication that followed as a result.
The collection now open in the SHIP database comprises every edition of the ESA STR, which was published quarterly throughout its short history. These amount to seven references in total, divided between Volumes 1 (1975, numbers 1-3) and Volume 2 (1976, numbers 1-4) of the publication.
Volume 1, published in April 1975, was the immediate successor of Volume 7 of the ELDO/ESRO STR, which covered the period from January to March 1975. It begins with a brief introduction from Director General Roy Gibson, outlining the transition: “The title has changed, the cover design has changed, it has a new volume number, but its aims remain the same.”
Namely, “to inform the scientific and technological communities in Europe and elsewhere of the space-oriented research and development activities in European institutions and industry.”
The resulting body of 38 articles contained in its two volumes therefore offer a glimpse into the areas in which ESA was investing its space research efforts in the mid-1970s, and an idea of the emerging disciplines or topics with a perceived importance for future development.
Among other subjects covered are Earth-resources surveys, launcher vibrations, spacecraft control systems, material sciences in space and the physics of the auroral zone. The content also includes studies of mathematical models for pulse width modulation regulators, satellite propulsion, payloads and antenna-pattern prediction, dynamic interaction between the two ISEE spacecraft in launch configuration and European tests on materials outgassing.
As an important side note, the ESA Scientific and Technical Review is not to be confused with the of ESA Scientific and Technical Reports, despite sharing the same acronym (STR) and an almost identical name! The Reports series was created in 1977, at the same time as the Review became the ESA Journal, and as a result the two did not co-exist at any point in time. There were also other differences between them: the Reports series was the publication route for the results of ESA-funded experiments, studies or research, specific to a particular topic and for a narrow technical audience, while the Review was a magazine or digest for a wider technical audience.
Perhaps the potential for confusion between the various scientific and technical publications series was an additional factor in the transformation of the Technical and Scientific Review into the ESA Journal in the autumn of 1977. However, the main motivation was the desire for a more ambitious reach. Professor Massimo Trella, Chairman of ESA Publications Advisory Board and Inspector General, explained the logic, and the importance of publications for scientific cooperation, in ESA Journal 1:
“Publications can certainly serve to encourage the evolution of space enterprises involving a wide participation and with this in mind we feel that our need is more for a ‘Journal’ than a ‘Review’. A Journal is more appropriate to the posing or understanding of new problems, to the launching of fresh ideas, and to the capture of wider interests. We also think it sensible to produce a broad-based European space journal in parallel with the specialised publications as a forum from those problems that are common to the wide front of our diversified activities.”
The entire digitised collection of the ESA Journal from 1977 is already open in SHIP and this opening fills in the gap between 1975 and 1977, making accessible an unbroken line of ESA technical and scientific publishing from the creation of the Agency until September 1994, with the final issue of ESA Journal - Vol 18 No 3.
More information
To browse the digital collection, enter the SHIP database and search for ‘ESA STR’.
Read more about the collection of ESA Technical and Scientific Review.