COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES \ \ ! I / The aeronautical and space industries of the Community compared with those of the United Kingdom and the United States GENERAL REPORT Volume 3 COMPETITION INDUSTRY - 1971 - 4 I Survey carried out on behalf of the Commission of the European Communities (Directorate- General for Industry) Project coordinator: Mr Felice Calissano, with the assistance of Messrs Federico Filippi and Gianni Jarre of Turin Polytech­ nical College and Mr Francesco Forte of the University of Turin SORIS Working Group : Mr Ruggero Cominotti Mr Ezio Ferrarotti Miss Donata Leonesi Mr Andrea Mannu Mr Jacopo Muzio Mr Carlo Robustelli Interviews with government agencies and private companies conducted by : Mr Felice Calissano Mr Romano Catolla Cavalcanti Mr Federico Filippi Mr Gianni Jarre Mr Carlo Robustelli July 1969 I No. 7042 SORIS spa Economic studies, market research 11, via Santa Teresa, Turin, Italy Tel. 53 98 65/66 The aeronautical and space industries of the Community compared with those of the United Kingdom and the United States STUDIES Competition Industry No.4 BRUSSELS 197.1 THE AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE INDUSTRIES OF THE COMMUNITY COMPARED WITH THOSE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE UNITED STATES VOLUME 1 The aeronautical and space research and development VOLUME 2 The aeronautical and space industry VOLUME 3 The space activities VOLUME 4 The aeronautical market VOLUME 5 Technology- Balance of payments The role of the aerospace industry in the economy Critical assessment of the results of the survey CHAPTER 2 Section B The space activities Contents PART 1 - SPACE ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED STATES 1. INTRODUCTION 469 2. FIRST PERIOD OF SPACE ACTIVITY 470 3. SECOND PERIOD OF SPACE ACTIVITY 476 4. SPACE PROGRAMMES IN THE UNITED STATES 480 4.1 Military Programmes 480 4.2 Civil Unmanned Programmes 482 4.2.1 General summary 482 4.2.2 Civil application satellites 483 4.3 Civil Manned Programmes 486 4.4 NASA Joint Programmes 489 5. CURRENT PROSPECTS 490 6. US SPACE AGENCIES ADDITIONAL TO NASA AND THE DoD 492 PART 2 WORLD SPACE AGENCIES 1 • INTRODUCTION 497 2. INTELSAT AND COMSAT 498 2.1 Introduction 498 2.2 INTELSAT Agreements 500 2.3 INTELSAT Activities 502 2.4 Current Situation and Prospects 506 PART 3 - EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCIES 1 • INTRODUCTION 513 ELDO (European Launcher Development Organization) 516 2.1 Aims and Constitution 516 2.2 Organization and Budget 519 463 2.3 Activity of ELDO 520 2.3.1 In 1964 and 1965 520 2.3.2 In 1966 522 2.3.3 In 1967 525 2.3.4 In 1968 528 2.4 Contribution of ELDO Member Countries 532 3. ESRO (European Space Research Organization) 534 3.1 Origins and Purpose 534 3.2 Initial Programmes 534 3.3 Organization and Personnel 535 3.4 Budget and Contributions 537 3.5 ESRO Contracts 541 3.6 Geographical Distribution of Contracts 542 3.7 Projects Completed 545 3.7.1 Sounding rockets 545 3.7.2 Satellites 546 3.8 Current Programmes and Prospects 551 4. GETS (European Conference on Communications Satellites) 552 PART 4 - THE SPACE PROGRAMMES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE MEMBER COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY 1 • UNITED KINGDOM 559 2. FRANCE 570 2.1 Military Activity in the Missiles and Space Area 570 2.1 .1 LRBA (Laboratoire de Recherches Balistiques et Aerodynamiques) 570 2.1.2 Tactical and strategic missiles 572 2.1.3 SEREB (Societe d'Etudes et Realisation d'Engins Balistiques) 573 464 2.1.4 Military space technology 577 2.1.5 Geographical concentration of plants 578 2.1.6 Other military activities in rocketry and in space 579 2.1.7 Military research 581 2.1.8 Launcher prospects 581 2.2 Civil Space Programmes, National and Cooperative 583 2.2.1 CNES (Establishment of the Centre National d 1 Etudes Spatiales) 583 2.2.2 The space centres of CNES 584 2.2.3 Organization, personnel strength and budget of CNES 587 2.2.4 Completed programmes 590 2.2.5 Current programmes 593 2.2.6 Industrial policy of CNES 597 3. GERMANY 598 3.1 Origins and Organization of Space Activity 598 3.2 Activity and Prospects 602 4. ITALY 609 4.1 Origin of Space Activity 609 4.2 Organization of Space R&D 609 4.3 National Programme 611 4.4 Survey of the National Programme 614 5. BELGIUM 616 6. NETHERLANDS 617 PART 5 CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER OUTLOOK 1. SPACE EXPENDITURES IN THE MEMBER COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY, COMPARED WITH THOSE IN BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES 621 2. EUROPE'S LAG 623 465 3. EUROPE'S INDUSTRIAL POSTURE 625 4. US/EUROPEAN RELATIONS 627 5. THE PRESENT SITUATION 628 6. GROWTH HYPOTHESES FOR THE 19?0 18 631 ?. TECHNICAL ACTION 634 8. SPACE EXPENDITURE IN RELATION TO TOTAL R&D EXPENDITURE 635 TABLES AND DOCUMENTS ANNEXED TO CHAPTER 3 - SECTION B 641 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED AT THE THIRD ESC 657 Annex 1 - Resolution concerning the principles of European cooperation in space, proposed by the Belgian Delegate (United Kingdom reservation) 665 466 PART 1 The space activities in the United States 1o INTRODUCTION Space activity, like nuclear activity, is a technical legacy of the Second World War. In the immediate postwar decade the stimulus, in both cases, was exclusively military. Interest in civil and scientific applications came later, when the destructive potential of the V2 and the atomic bomb had been developed by the military and combined in the first strategic missiles with nuclear warheads. The Russians were four years behind the US with their first atomic bomb (1949) and, unlike the us, they had no fleet of intercontinental bombers; this handicap led Russia to develop strategic missiles before possessing nuclear warheads. With their first thermonuclear explosion (1953) the Russians were only a year behind the Americans, but they were already ahead in missile development. In 1957 the US position can be summarized as follows. Military missiles: the Army possessed, in the Redstone, the sole operational tactical missile and was developing the Jupiter IRBM; the Air Force was developing the Thor IRBM and the Atlas and Titan ICBMs; the Navy was developing the solid­ fuel Polaris IRBM for launching from nuclear-powered submarines. Scientific space research: in 1955 President Eisenhower had promised government support for American participation in the International Geophysical Year (1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958); projects included the launching of space probes and putting a small research satellite into orbit (Project Vanguard, entrusted to the US Navy laboratories). Aerospace: the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), created in 1915, when America possessed 23 military aircraft as against 3500 in Europe, was developing the super- 469 sonic X15 rocket plane for heights of up to 100 km, in con­ junction with the Navy and Air Force. At the end of 1957 the NACA had a budget of $117 million (for the financial year 1957-58 = FY 1958) and equipment worth $300 million, mainly concentrated in the laboratories at Langley, Virginia, founded in 1917, Ames, California, founded in 1940 and Lewis, Ohio, founded in 1941, with a total personnel of some 8000. The US therefore had no unified and coordinated space programme when the first Russian Sputnik heralded in the space age on 4 October 1957. Space activity in the US will be briefly described, with particular stress on those aspects most pertinent to the comparison with European activity in the same sector. The attached Tables 2/B-1 - 2/B-7 show US space expenditure from 1957 to 1967 (totals and by recipient agencies) and the figures for NASA employees. This serves as a general reference, as the tables are not specifically referred to in Part 1 of this report. 2. FIRST PERIOD OF SPACE ACTIVITY For the purpose of comparison with Europe it is interesting to analyze how the American decision-making and organizational machinery reacted to the stern technical and political chal­ lenge launched by Russia in 1957. The US immediately realized the political and strategic im­ plications of the first Russian successes in space. Their reaction was prompt and radical: - on 7 November 1957 the President's Scientific Advisory Committee (PSAC) was set up at the White House to develop an aggressive coordinated space programme; • 470 - on 9 January 1958 the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was set up at the Department of Defence(DoD) to coordinate at last the missile and space activities of the three Services; - on 31 January 1958 a Jupiter vehicle put into orbit the first US satellite, Explorer 1; six weeks later came the first successful Vanguard launching (17 March 1958); - on 6 February 1958 and 5 March 1958 the space and astro­ nautics committees of the Senate and the House of Repre­ sentatives were set up; together with the PSAC, DoD and NACA the Committees critically reviewed the space programmes and prepared the Space Act, which passed through Congress and was signed by the President on 29 July 1958 (Public Law 85-568, 85th Congress, HR 12575, 28 August 1957). Under the provisions of the Space Act: (a) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created as an exclusively civil agency, taking over the tech­ nical apparatus of NACA and all the civil space programmes initiated by the military; (b) All space activities were to be coordinated by the National Aeronautics and Space Council (NASC), consisting of the President, the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of State, the Administrator of NASA, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), one more public servant and a maximum of three private members; (c) NASA was set up as an "Administration" and not an Advisory Committee like NACA; the Administrator has very wide powers regarding agreements and contracts with industry and the .