Professor Richard Griffiths opens the European Seminar Series with a lecture of the origins of the European space effort.
On 9 September 2009, Prof. Richard Griffiths, Professor of History in Leiden University, opened the promising series of European seminar lectures with an interesting perspective on “The origins of Europe in space”. The title was chosen, he explained, with an eye to the fact that this year is UN Year of Astronomy. The lecture took place in Leiden University Campus den Haag in cooperation with Montesquieu institute and gathered over 40 students and specialists.
In his presentation, Prof. Griffiths argued that space research is an underestimated aspect of European integration which deserves attention, since it illustrates its intergovernmental aspect and demonstrates the problems of policy making in big science. Starting with the contention that “matter began to matter” in the 1950s, he describes how European states within CERN constructed the biggest particle accelerator in the world. This showed the potential of collaboration in big science and served both as a stimulus (and a warning) for other efforts. The presentation than focused on the crises and success stories of the European Space Vehicle Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO). The story proved one of budget over-runs, technical failures and lack of direction. Coupled with the challenge of application satellites, for which there was no provision, by the end of the 1960s both organizations were mired in controversy and the entire space effort had almost collapsed.
Ironically, it was the Americans who ‘saved the day’. It was the retrenchment of offers of US-EU cooperation in the Post Apollo space program and the US refusal to guarantee launchers for non-scientific ventures that “regalvanised” European space cooperation, by demonstrating that there was no alterative. The result was the creation of the European Space Agency. As Prof. Griffiths stressed, “the end is the beginning” – European presence and role in space, with more emphasis on current developments will be explored on the next lecture of the European seminar series.
After the seminar, professors and students had the chance for informal interaction and debate over a glass of wine in the friendly environment of Montesquieu Institute. And after that, the MA EUS class continued with a dinner in the Hague, and further team building activities.