European Space History (@ESA

European Space History

@ESA_History

Mar 16, 2025

For more views into yesteryear, you can now follow on: 🔵bsky.app/profile/eurosp… 🔵instagram.com/european_space…

European Space History (@eurospacehistory.bsky.social)

From bsky.app

2.2K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Dec 17, 2024

Part two of our #ESAarchives series on 'how a make a new space organisation' looks at the day it all happened – come back to 30 May 1975 and discover exactly how it all came together to make @esa! 🔗historicalarchives.esa.int/30-may-1975-re… #Roadto1975 #60yearsELDOandESRO #50YearsOfESA

Hugh McCann for Ireland signs the Act while the cameras look on (pic: ESA ECSR)

Practical arrangements for the day, 30 May 1975 (pic ESA ECSR)

3.5K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Dec 13, 2024

How do you make a new space organisation? Find out with the #ESAarchives in a special two-part series looking at the people and processes that created ESA in 1975, as we get ready for fifty years of ESA next year! Part one starts with drafting a Convention...

ESA circular letter announcing that the ESA Convention had been signed 30 May and that ESA was operating from 31 May 1975.

Michel Bourély standing with paper in hand at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries, 30 May 1975. With Swedish and Swiss delegates

Gaston Geens chairing the first ESA Ministerial Council in 1977.

Other notable figures identifiable are Director General Roy Gibson, head of French delegation Michel Bignier and Harry Atkinson, UK delegation.

2.7K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Dec 2, 2024

Our #ESAarchives series on ESRO’s Directors General concludes this month with Alexander Hocker, DG from 1971 to 1974. December's #ObjectOfTheMonth tells the story of a framed portrait and takes us to the transition from ESRO to ESA, ready for ESA’s 50th anniversary next year!

March 1974 – Alexander Hocker speaking at the '10 Years of ESRO' anniversary party in the main corridor at ESTEC in the Netherlands.

1.8K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 26, 2024

This week, #ESAarchives are investigating the opening chapter in the story of ESA research in telecommunications – we’ve just opened a new collection of material from the first ESRO telecommunications studies from 1967-72 👇 🔗historicalarchives.esa.int/highlights-fir…

1.5K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 26, 2024

See also Arturo Russo's 'The early development of the Telecommunications Satellite Programme in ESRO (1965-1971)' ESA HSR-09, 1993 🔗esa.int/esapub/hsr/HSR…

943

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 17, 2024

#OTD 17 November 2016, launch of #ESA's @Thom_astro Pesquet 🇫🇷 on his 6-month #Proxima mission to @Space_Station w/@AstroPeggy & cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky #Shenanigans @esaspaceflight @ESA_fr @NASAhistory 🔗 esa.int/Science_Explor…

ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet is standing on the steps at the base of the launch tower, waving to well-wishers before he boards the rocket that will take him to the International Space Station.

42K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 16, 2024

#OTD 16 November 2022, NASA headed back to the Moon together with #ESA, with the launch of #ArtemisI, a @NASA_Orion spacecraft powered by the #ESM1 European Service Module #Artemis #ForwardToTheMoon @esaspaceflight @NASAhistory @NASAArtemis @NASAKennedy 🔗

A camera on the mobile launcher shows the rocket and spacecraft lifting off as umbilical arms swing away to provide a clean path for the rocket’s ascent. The ESA and NASA logos can be clearly seen on the rocket's white fairing. (Photo: NASA/Chris Coleman, Kevin Davis).

3.9K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 14, 2024

#OTD 14 November 2000, #Portugal 🇵🇹 acceded to the #ESA Convention, becoming ESA's 15th Member State @AschbacherJosef 🔗esa.int/About_Us/Corpo…

A photograph of the Portuguese flag against a blue background. It is a vertically divided green-red national flag with a coat of arms centred on the line between the two colours.

2.5K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 13, 2024

#ESAarchives are issuing an appeal for donations! We’re looking for material from ESA’s predecessors COPERS, ELDO and ESRO, who operated throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, prior to the creation of ESA in 1975. Can you help us reconstruct their legacy?

cover of the Blue Book produced by COPERS (the initial eight-year programme of ESRO)

Cover of document with ELDO job descriptions

2.7K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 12, 2024

#OTD 🔟 years ago, 12 November 2014, the third of a trio of music videos featuring music composed specially by #Vangelis was released to celebrate the first landing on a comet by ESA's #Rosetta mission. @ElsewDotCom @AirbusSpace @esascience @DLR_en @esaoperations @NASAhistory

00:00

4.7K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 12, 2024

Seems like only yesterday! #CometLandingRelived ☄️

European Space Agency

@esa

Nov 12, 2024

Can you believe it has been 10 years since we landed on a comet? On 12 November 2014, after a ten-year journey through the Solar System and over 500 million kilometres from home, our Rosetta mission’s lander Philae made history by touching down on a comet for the first time.

00:00

2.1K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 12, 2024

#OTD 🔟 years ago: 12 November 2014, @ESA_Rosetta made history by landing a probe on the surface of a comet, 1st ever to do so. The signal confirming touchdown of @Philae2014 on #Comet67P was received by @esaoperations #ESOC #CometLandingRelived 🔗esa.int/Science_Explor…

A cartoon showing the Philae lander on the surface of Comet 67P. The character of Philae is wearing a yellow safety helmet with a lamp on it and is planting an ESA flag on the surface of the comet. The Rosetta spacecraft is shown in the upper left hand corner of the image.

4.6K

European Space History

@ESA_History

Nov 11, 2024

Follow along with #CometLandingRelived!

ESA Science

@esascience

Nov 11, 2024

Welcome to our week-long replay of #CometLandingRelived coverage as we recall @ESA_Rosetta & @Philae2014’s dramatic feat of space exploration ten years ago this week, with all of its unexpected twists and turns...or should that be bounces…?! Let’s pick up the story the night

912