Page for Giotto encounter with Halley
Page for ERS-1 launch event
Page for Integral launch event
#ESAarchives are prolonging celebrations for the 40th anniversary of Giotto's flyby of Comet Halley, taking a look at the guest book for the ‘Night of the Comet’ organised at ESA ESOC mission control on 13 March 1986.
ESA Giotto Project Manager making a presentation.
A very special opening of material from the #ESAarchives celebrates the 40th anniversary of Giotto’s historic flyby of Comet Halley, in photos, images and documentation 👉 historicalarchives.esa.int/giotto-cometary-encounte... 2/3
ESA Giotto project manager David Dale presenting mission to press at encounter media event, 13 March 1986 ( © ESA ECSR)
Giotto flight operations summary for 13 March 1986 ( © ESA ECSR)
A very special opening of material from the #ESAarchives celebrates the 40th anniversary of Giotto’s historic flyby of Comet Halley, in photos, images and documentation.
historicalarchives.esa.int/giotto-comet...
The photo is a close-up detail of the payload – the ECS-1 satellite – during preparations for the launch. ESA photographer Simon Vermeer has used the reflective properties of the material to create an almost abstract and visually compelling image, where only the hand gives us an indication of the subject and scale.
#ESAarchives #ObjectOfTheMonth for March looks back at the first satellite in @esa.int's telecommunications programme, ECS-1, launched in 1983. Find out how the development of ECS can be traced back to the late 1960s...
historicalarchives.esa.int#oom @esaconnectivity.esa.int @technology.esa.int
Artist impression of the International Space Station, 1982 (pic: ESA ECSR)
Test campaign for the Exosat satellite at CIT Alcatel, Annecy, France © ESA ECSR
Kourou during preparations for the first operation launch of Ariane 1, flight L5, on 10 September 1982 © ESA ECSR
Spin test of the Exosat satellite © ESA ECSR
🤔 Which world-famous singer visited ESA ESTEC via ‘country roads’?
🎸 All is revealed in the latest opening of historical photos from #ESAarchives, along with other space news from 1982 - a year with multiple musical connections!
historicalarchives.esa.int/opening-imag...
Cover of ESRO's Report of the Scientific and Technical Working Group to COPERS, December 1961, in blue!
What was ESRO's ‘Blue Book’? How did it come about and what is its wider significance, both then and now?
Check out the latest deep dive from #ESAarchives to 1961! 👇
Resolution of the Ariane Launcher Programme Board ©ESA ECSR
Cover of press kit for Ariane L04 launch © ESA ECSR
While #ESAarchives are getting ready to open historical photos from 1982 this month, here’s a sneak preview of how the year started: February's #ObjectOfTheMonth explains the mechanisms for qualification of the Ariane launcher in January 1982, 44 years ago!
historicalarchives.esa.int#oom
Roger Bonnet at the launch of Giotto on 2 July 1985 © ESA ECSR
Event to mark Giotto's encounter with Comet Halley, ESOC, 13-14 March 1986. Rogert Bonnet (second left) with Horst Uwe Keller (Max Planck Institute), Reimar Lüst (ESA Director General) and Heidi Graf (ESTEC PR Office) to the right. © ESA ECSR
#ESAarchives were immensely saddened to hear of the passing of Roger Bonnet, ESA’s Director of Science 1983-2001, on 19 January 2026. #Space #History #SpaceHistory
Remote sensing forest map of Europe, created for the ISY © ESA ECSR
International Space Year (ISY) logo © ESA ECSR
The first opening from the #ESAarchives in 2026 deals with material that dates back some 30 years, to 1992 and the #InternationalSpaceYear (ISY), to the beginnings of a coordinated European approach to Earth observation for environmental protection 🧪🌏
historicalarchives.esa.int/volumes-inte...
HEOS-1 in the experiment room, 1968
Electronic box experiment 2147, 1969
GEOS boom, 1975
😎 #ESAarchives' ‘theme’ for 2026: an exploration of the origins of ESA activities, science, events and people in its early years. Follow through the year for more, but here's an appetiser! 😊
🔗 historicalarchives.esa.int/beginning-es...
#ESAorigins @eui-euarchives.bsky.social @eui-eu.bsky.social
Model of ERS-1
ESA BR-75, the Data Book of ERS-1, the European Remote Sensing Satellite
The ERS-1 spacecraft in launch configuration at ESA ESTEC
#ESAarchives kicks off 2026 with a look back at ERS-1, the first environmental monitoring satellite developed by ESA, and the origins of European Earth observation for environmental protection – more about this model too, in #ObjectOfTheMonth 👇
historicalarchives.esa.int#oom
Distance marker, Kourou, French Guiana, 1981 © ESA ECSR
Kourou, 1981, © ESA ECSR
Staff and families celebrating at the L01 launch party, for the first Ariane rocket in December 1979 (according to the main article, this is the Swiss delegation 😉 ) © SYGMA/Alain Nogues
🎅 🔔 @esa.int and partners in European industry have built up a history of festive launches, from the first flight of Ariane 1 on 24 December 1979. Closing the commemorations of #50YearsOfESA, #ESAarchives take a look back at #Christmas past in Kourou!
@cnes.fr @transport.esa.int @fr.esa.int
This image shows men working with a vintage computer system and a connected teletype machine in a 1970s or early 1980s setting.
😎 Coming soon! The finale to #50YearsOfESA celebrations, #ESAarchives are unveiling a new project to make public the plan of the collections at the European Centre for Space Records at ESRIN – more here👇 and tell us what you would like to see included!
historicalarchives.esa.int/coming-soon-...
A collage illustrating activities of the Historical Archives of the European Union.
🛰️The HAEU is hiring an ESA Archivist in Florence.
🗃️If you have at least 3 years of archival experience, check out this position!
ℹ️https://loom.ly/PDXYgEA
Deadline: 9 Jan
@eurospacehistory.bsky.social @esa.int #ESAArchives
It was a challenge to find one image bringing all of this together! However, #ESAarchives chose the person with whom it all began, at an event celebrating 25 years of European space in the 1980s, representing all the people who contributed to this 60-year adventure!
#50YearsOfESA #ObjectOfTheMonth
The photo shows French physicist Pierre Auger in April 1989, arriving at the main event for the Silver Jubilee of European space. A caption in the ESA Bulletin 58, where this picture was first published, explains who the figures surrounding him are: “K.-E. Reuter (ESA) escorting Prof. P. Auger and Mrs F. Perrin”.
The close of 2025 brings to an end two concurrent years of celebration for the #ESAarchives – the 60th anniversary of the creation of ESA’s predecessors ELDO and ESRO in 2024, and our journey along the ‘road to 1975’ this year for the first 50 years of ESA.
#50YearsOfESA #ObjectOfTheMonth
Blue and white cover of ESA's Scientific and Technical Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1975
Black and white diagram of a satellite from an ESA STR publication
🆕 #ESAarchives opened the 'ESA Scientific & Technical Review' collection in their SHIP database. This was the first iteration of ESA’s primary technical publication, giving insight into areas where ESA was investing its research efforts in the mid-1970s.
🔗 historicalarchives.esa.int/opening-esa-...
Opening of ESA's Ministerial Council 1977 with Gaston Geens (outgoing Chairman) seated in the centre as President, with Director General Roy Gibson on the left and Chairman of the ESA Council Wolfgang Finke on the right © ESA ECSR
Main conference room, ESA HQ Paris, during Ministerial Council 1977 © ESA ECSR
😎 While space ministers plan for the future next week at ESA's Ministerial Council #CM25 on 26-27 November, #ESAarchives look back to the beginnings of ESA and its first Ministerial Council.
@esa.int @eurospacehistory.bsky.social #ESAarchives
Payload racks for ESA's Spacelab Module in Bremen. The Spacelab racks bend inward at 45° at the top to make better use of the upper volume. Note the handrails that follow this angle.
The Spacelab module Engineering Model being fitted with integrated subsystems and experiments in the Integration Hall at ERNO, Bremen, Germany, 1978
The #ESAarchives Object of the Month for November is about the space connections between present and past in the German city of Bremen. While this month it plays host to ESA Ministerial Council meeting (CM25), almost 50 years ago it played an important role in one of ESA's first flagship projects.
Ariane 3 rocket launching in the dark. Cloud of smoke on the lower part.
What lasted 18 years but was only meant for 7?
Marecs B2, launched #OTD in 1984 on an Ariane 3! 🛰️
One of Europe’s first telecom satellites, keeping ships connected with alerts, forecasts and news.🚢
A true overachiever in space history🌍
@eurospacehistory.bsky.social #ESAarchives
Archive access 1970s style © ESA ECSR
The latest #ESAarchives article on the history of preservation reveals some of the more bizarre things they've found in shipments (😮🤭) and explains how colleagues and users can play a part in appraising and accessing material.
historicalarchives.esa.int/brief-histor... @eui-euarchives.bsky.social
Marecs-A undergoing final tests and integration at CNES in Toulouse
Control room for Meteosat 2 launch
The first Spacelab Flight Unit delivery at MBB ERNO in December 1981
Heidi Graf of the ESTEC PR Office with a collection of money for the ESTEC Natural Disaster Fund to be used as an image for the 1981 ESA calendar. The ESA Humanitarian Relief Fund was founded in 1979.
#ESAarchives has just opened a new year in its collection of historical photos – head to 1981 as we investigate the start of ESA’s second decade and discover the connection with Bremen – where ESA’s Ministerial Council (CM25) will take place next month!
historicalarchives.esa.int/opening-imag...
Minutes from the first meeting of ESA Communication Satellites Programme Board (PB-Tel)
1976 artist’s impression of meeting room for the new ESA HQ building, rue Mario Nikis, Paris
October’s #ObjectOfTheMonth from #ESAarchives digs into the handover from ESRO to ESA in 1975, seen through the lens of its 'Communication Satellites Programme Board'. More on this 'new' ESA committee👇
historicalarchives.esa.int#oom #50YearsOfESA @eui-euarchives.bsky.social @esaconnectivity.esa.int
Cover of ESA brochure To Last a Lifetime, BR-146, April 2000
Cover of ESA brochure Success Story: 30 discoveries from ESA's Science missions in space, BR-147, April 1999
New projects for the next academic year? Find out how #ESAarchives can facilitate your research with nearly a dozen collections of ESA’s historical publications, from the 1960s to the 2000s, opened since 2023.
The latest additions opened today👇
historicalarchives.esa.int/our-digitise...
This article, written by the #ESAarchives to celebrate ESRIN's 55th birthday, relives the foundation ceremony – the original programme, maps, speeches, guestbook and photos from the day have all been digitised.
historicalarchives.esa.int/55-years-esr...
Cover of Mémoires/Recollections by Roy Gibson (Interviews with Roy Gibson by André Lebeau)
Cover of ESA SP-1265, Peter Creola, Advocate of Space
Entretiens avec André Lebeau, by Alain Gaubert
How to Survive in Space, by Madeleine Schaefer
#ESAarchives are reprising their series on ‘a history of preservation’. Today they look at memoirs, some behind-the-scenes stories from ESA’s first 50 years, and at some of the issues in dealing with both candid and personal recollections!
historicalarchives.esa.int/brief-histor... #50YearsOfESA
Scale model of ESA's Cos-B satellite
Launch of Cos-B on a Thor Delta 2913 launch vehicle from the Western Test Range, California, on 9 August 1975.
Integration of the full experiment payload for Cos-B at MBB in Munich, clean room.
September's #ObjectOfTheMonth from #ESAarchives is a scale model of ESA’s ‘first’ satellite, Cos-B🧪🔭
Find out what we mean by 'first', and the other firsts of this remarkable mission for the new European Space Agency, 50 years ago!
🔗 historicalarchives.esa.int#oom
#50YearsOfESA @science.esa.int
Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, captured by Rosetta. Image credit: ESA/Rosetta/Navcam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/europeanspaceagency/19721134803/in/album-72157654544894963/
☄️Catch that shooting star!
📚 Apply for an ESA Grant at the Historical Archives of the EU
📆 Deadline: 31 July
More info: https://loom.ly/5gArtgA
#ESAArchives #grants #research #CFA @esa.int
Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, captured by Rosetta.
Image credit: ESA/Rosetta/Navcam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
🚀🌐📡 How is #ESA an example of European integration?
David Skogerboe's research examines how Europe arrived at world-class #space infrastructure through research and collaboration.
Read more! 🔗 https://loom.ly/wA_xX28
@esa.int #SpaceHistory #ESAArchives
