EDITORIAL INFORMATION

We are proud to say today that the European Space Directory 1995 has become over the years THE reference book for any company or institution involved in the space market and are determined to honor this acknowledged reputation in the future. This is our tenth anniversary edition. Ten years of reflecting the space market and featuring European and non-European space companies have allowed this directory to gain an unequalled quality and authoritativeness in this field.

(Extracted from the press release).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Foreword. Jean-Marie Luton.

-Introduction. Théo Pirard.

-Space Chronology 1994-1995.

-Contracts Awarded by ESA to Industry. Valerio Raganelli.

-World Space Programmes and Budgets. Marcel Toussaint.

-Satellite Launching Sites in the World and Succesful Launches of Spacecraft.

-The European Space Infrastructure for the Year 2001.

-Earth Observation Satellites for Civilian Applications in the World.

-Global Systems of Non-Geosynchronous Satellites for Personal Communications.

-European Company Profiles.

-Non-European Company Profiles.

-Minimum Listings.

-Space Who's Who.

-Buyer's Guide.

-Companies and Institutions Listed by Country.

-Alphabetical List of Companies and Institutions.

-Index to Advertisers.

OUR REVIEW

The book we are reviewing now is not a mere directory where we can find the addresses, contact people and data on firms with dealings in the space industry. Its yearly publication allows for the detailed reviewing of what have been the most important events in the world of astronautics during the preceding year, thus becoming a work which, besides being useful as a reference work, can be "read" so as to keep ourselves updated with respect to the developments which have started to reach a noteworthy post in the space arena. Thus for instance in this edition information about the new constellations of communication satellites as well as civilian observation platforms is included. Of course, the chronologies and statistics of contracts, as well as a detailed description of the current status of national space programs of all the countries in the world, give this guide a compilation character of immense value, a value which increases as the years go by.

With respect to its main objective, that of releasing a great amount of data about the European space industry, we must point out that the different firms finance their presence in the directory, so that it is possible to detect some absences. In these instances,"minimum listings" are included, thus contributing to the basic information of those firms or institutes whose funds or budgets do not allow them to appear on the main directory. For the buyers, for those who have to look for a given product, European Space Directory 1995 is extremely worthwhile since it allows for the locating of suppliers according to fields of activity and services. No less important is the "Who's who" section, where we can find the names and posts of some 1,500 people related to the firms in the directory (about 255). For the latter, the following data are included: addresses and contact telephones, share capital, staff, company structure, activities, specialities, etc. In a word, this is an essential work for the professional of the European space world.