Posted on 09 March 2015
The European Space Agency (ESA) with headquarters in Paris has recently transferred to Florence archival documents of its decision-making services and bodies concerning the year 1999. These archives are now available to research and the inventories can be consulted online. Some documents fill gaps of previous years’ transfers. There are 785 new files at disposal of researchers.
The files of 1999 are of particular interest because in that crucial year a Ministerial Conference was held in Paris on 11 and 12 May which renewed ESA’s action strategy. The files bear witness to the amount of resources given to a variety of projects, such as the European Microgravity Research Programme (EMIR).
Each project had a large-scale spectrum of activities, involving also the United States and other international partners with which ESA continued collaboration on the International Space Station (ISS).
The files also illustrate the new Navigation Satellite programme, whose GalileoSat was of primary importance. The archives shed light on this phase of the programme management in times of budgetary and financial constraints.
The fonds of ESA are freely accessible for consultation. The reproduction of documents is limited to 500 copies per researcher, per annum and per academic project.
Access to the
ESA fonds