The archives on the relations of the European Space Agency with Japan and Russia are now available for consultation at the Historical Archives of the European Union. The series concerns ESA’s relations with Japan between 1979 and 2004 and with Russia from 1975 to 2005.
The sub-series on Japan contains documents on the main areas of cooperation, such as Space Science, Earth Observation, Telecommunications, Product Assurance, Hope/Hermes, Space Transportation, Space Station and Space Experiment, Network Operations, Technologies and General Affaires. It includes, among others, the ESA/Japan annual meetings to discuss common strategies and projects, documents concerning the process towards an agreement between ESA and NASDA on the Artemis cooperation, reports, correspondence and technical documents on communications satellites and telecom projects, and finally working papers and press material on various scientific projects and programmes.
The archives on ESA’s relations with Japan begin with information exchanges between ESA and STA (Science and Technology Agency), NASDA (National Space Development Agency), ISAS (Institute of Space Science), MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Japan. Later, this evolved to regular cooperation in various areas such as space science with the ISO mission, earth observation with JERS-1 and ERS-2 calibration activities and data policy definition. On 1 October 2003, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) succeeded all rights and obligations of NASDA, ISAS and NAL (National Laboratory of Japan).
The archives on ESA-Russia relations cover the main areas of space cooperation: earth observation, microgravity, science, telecommunications and navigation, technology and industry, space transportation and manned space flight. Documents include, among others, protocols and minutes of meetings, programmes and reports of seminars and conferences, agreements on space issues, technical papers, correspondence concerning the establishment of the ESA office in Moscow and documents on various projects and programmes.
A formal agreement between ESRO and the USSR was concluded in 1971. The following agreement of 25 April 1990 created five Working Groups that met once a year, related to space physics, biology and medicine, microgravity, earth observation and space transportation. On 30 September 1992, the Russian Space Agency (RKA) was created to replace the different entities that previously liaised with ESA (Glavkosmos, Intercosmos, NPO Energia). On 12 October 1992, a joint declaration was signed as a new framework agreement to replace the one of 1990, and the cooperation increased in various fields, such as science of materials, telecommunications, navigation, orbital infrastructures and fluids physics. Another agreement followed on 5 October 1994, and in 1995 ESA established an office in Moscow.
The two series now open to the public are part of a large archival deposit that arrived in Florence in 2017 from ESA Headquarters in Paris, and which is currently undergoing archival treatment.
Consult the archives of the European Space Agency
Image: © European Space Agency