ESA SP-1317 The ESA Convention
After the 30th anniversary of the signature of the ESA Convention in 2005, now we celebrate 30 years since its entry into force.
The ESA Convention was signed in Paris on 30 May 1975 by the nine original Member States (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom). It entered into force on 30 October 1980 with the deposit of the last instrument of ratification by France, in accordance with its Article XXI, 1.
The idea of creating an independent space organisation in Europe dated back to the early 1960s when six European countries Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK formed the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) to develop and build a heavy launcher called Europa. In 1962, those same countries, plus Denmark, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, formed the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) to undertake mainly scientific satellite programmes.
In 1975, a convention was concluded at diplomatic and ministerial level to set up one European Space Agency, effectively merging ESRO and ELDO, and broadening the scope of the agencys remit to include operational space applications systems, such as telecommunications satellites.
Read the ESA Convention and other publications online, with our visualiser tool.
Read online (English version)
Read online (German version)
Read online (French version) |
