The ESA Archives team was immensely saddened to hear of the passing of Roger Bonnet, ESA’s Director of Science from 1983 to 2001, on 19 January 2026.
This special opening pays tribute to his enormous contribution to the European Space Agency and its Science Programme and takes the form of a 1998 Special Publication on Space Science and the Long-Term Future of Space in Europe, made up of the proceedings of a colloquium organised to celebrate his 60th birthday.
Its introductory section outlines Bonnet’s long career in space, from the formative years in education and the French national space programme to his work on ESA’s first long-term science programme, Horizon 2000, giving valuable insight into the person behind many of the missions and activities that we will be delving into throughout 2026, as we continue our investigation into origins across ESA.
While it notes that “the missions approved and developed under his direction – and in particular the first missions of Horizon 2000 – have only been launched within the last couple of years”, more than half of the following proceedings go on to detail the array of scientific achievements from Bonnet’s tenure as ESA Director of Science. These span areas from infrared astronomy (ISO and beyond), optical and ultraviolet astronomy, high-accuracy astrometry and magnetospheric research, to Giotto and SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory). This is followed by a section of papers looking to the future of space science in Europe which concludes with closing addresses by former Chairman of ESA Council Hubert Curien, Hans Balsiger (at that time Chairman of the ESA Science Programme Committee) and Bonnet himself, who talks about the enormous changes seen in Europe from the 1960s to the 1990s.
In his own words: “I must say that I have been very very lucky to have worked and collaborated with so many first-class scientists and engineers throughout my career. Lucky also because I have worked in a period from when almost nothing existed - we were just at the birth of space research in 1960 - until now. In less than 35 years we have witnessed the complete exploration of the Solar System and the complete unveiling of the electromagnetic spectrum. In that same period we have explored the surroundings of the Earth and of the heliosphere, we have discovered the whole Universe. This has been truly exciting. I have also been very lucky to have grown up in a period that was particularly visionary, when Europe was being raised from the ashes and when the European space programme was being formulated”.
Roger Bonnet was instrumental in this transformational process: without him, European space would have been much the poorer.
Consult the proceedings in SHIP
