EDITORIAL INFORMATION

The twelfth edition of the European Space Directory was published for Spring, beginning of April 1997 and is available in our Paris offices. As in previous years, we have done our best to publish up-to-date and accurate information. The Directory is European in the larger sense, covering not only companies from countries of the European Space Agency (ESA) and/or most countries in the European Union. Of course, companies from ESA countries still form the hard core of profiles features in the 1997 edition, but there are newcomers. Portugal and Greece promote their space industries in the Directory together with their efforts to knit closer ties to ESA. Companies and institutions from the newly independent states on the eastern border of the European Union (Hungary, Poland, Romania...) are also present.

(Extracted from the press release).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Foreword. Alan M. Gaubert.

-Introduction. Théo Pirard.

-Space Chronology 1996-1997.

-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 2002.

-Comparative Tables of Astra and Eutelsat Broadcasting Satellites.

-Which Access to Space? Alphabetical Review of Satellite Launch Vehicles in the World.

-Asia in Space.

-"Made in France" Spacecraft for Applications.

-Company Profiles of ESA Member Countries.

-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.

-Advertising Index.

OUR REVIEW

The European Space Directory reaches its 12th. edition with an obvious maturity and reliability of contents. Exclusively devoted to providing information about the different firms and companies that integrate the European space industry, it has become a basic reference tool for the expert in this field.

The 1997 edition, like the previous ones, also is useful as a good review of the events that have happened during the previous year in the arena of astronautics, with articles and chronologies of a great historical interest. Tables with the budgets of the space nations are provided, with cross-references and comparisons, firm sales rankings, etc. In this occasion a special importance is attached to the launching rockets all over the world (these being analyzed one by one), as well as to the Asian industry and the European communications satellites. Still, the basic nucleus of the work is at the directory, which contains several dozens of files of companies that have financed their inclusion.

These files contain information on their activities, employees, addresses, contact telephones, e-mail, contracts, products, etc.

There is a specific section for some non-European firms, and even a minimum list for all those that have not wanted or have not been able to finance their presence at the main directory, with their basic data.

The reader can also find a complete who is who, a most valuable tool to locate the managerial personnel of each firm, and an ordered guide that facilitates finding the manufacturers of a given product.