EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Of all the postwar initiatives in Europe to combine its scientific and technological potential, cooperation in space research is one of the most visible and truly great achievements, and one where Europe has succeeded in becoming a united force. ESA and CERN, the other model of scientific cooperative venture in Europe, are outstanding examples of European success through collaboration. despite differing perceptions and interests, ESA has shown and continues to show that scientists, engineers, industries and governments can overcome national and institutional barriers in pursuing a common cause.

This is the first part of a two-volume history covering Europe's cooperative space efforts, which traces their beginnings from the late 1950s and the subsequent developments of a European space programme from that time up to the early 1970s. It recounts the efforts of the fledgling space community that launched ESRO (the European Space Research Organisation) and ELDO (the European Launcher Development Organisation), with much government support, and shows how those two organisations gradually evolved, and how the foundation was laid for a single European Space Agency.

(Extracted from the Preface, by Reimar Lüst).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Foreword. Jean-Marie Luton.

-Preface. Reimar Lüst.

-Introduction.

-1- The Beginning of the Space Age.
-2- The Launch of ESRO.
-3- The Launch of ELDO.
-4- Implementing ESRO's First Scientific Programme.
-5- Communications Satellites: The New Linchpin of the European Space Effort.
-6- The Difficulties in ELDO and the Conflict Over the Need for a European Launcher.
-7- US-European Collaboration: the Post-Apollo Programme.
-8- Defining ESRO's New Scientific Programmes.
-9- Laying the Foundations of ESA: The First and Second Package Deals.
-10- Conclusion.

-Appendix I, II, III, Index.

OUR REVIEW

Following the leadership so many years ago undertaken by NASA, the European Space Agency also has a program of compilation and filing of material related to the history of the agency. Eventually, and written by prominent historians and science writers, ESA Publications Division publishes books that, within the frame of ESA History Project, will no doubt constitute a most valuable legacy for future generations. In this instance, as we have already said, Europe in Space 1960 - 1973 is the first of two volumes by ESA Special Publications, which comments on the first stage of this magnificient history, that of the organizations which preceded ESA in time and which became the founding stone for it.

The format is eminently divulgative. The authors describe in a concise way the events that took place along these fourteen years, while completing the book with a valuable chronology that we may find annexed in one of the appendixes. The work is therefore a splendid summary of such an unforgettable period, the true origin of later scientific successes achieved by ESA.

According to the content of its pages, ESA's prehistory was surrounded by considerable problems at a political and economical level. It was thanks to the lessons taught by the management of ELDO and ESRO that it has been possible to implement a viable operative style for the current agency. The most important programs undertaken during this period are mentioned as well. Specifically, we are told about ESRO, HEOS, TD, and other satellites, the Europa rocket and various activities in cooperation with the United States.