FLUG REVUE January 2005: ESA leader Dordain outlines space plans

January 2005

JEAN-JAQUES DORDAIN

Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA)

Matthias Gründer spoke to Jean-Jacques Dordain about services for the public and about an exciting future for European spaceflight.

FLUG REVUE: You must need to be more of a politician than a researcher to reconcile the different ideas of the member states on space policy. Is ESA more of a political organisation today than it was in the past?

Dordain: ESA is without a doubt a lot of things at once, but I would not say that it is a political organisation. Above all, it is a technical organisation, and that poses new challenges for us. On the other hand, we are of course also political, but this should be understood more in a social sense. Over the last 30 years, most of our work has gone into building satellites which we wanted ourselves, and we showed the public that they could be useful. This I would describe as the demonstration period. But it is precisely because we were successful at this that we now need to change. No citizen of Europe can live without space systems. Because of this, ESA cannot be the same as it was before any more. We are opening the way to a new world, and we are doing this in collaboration with the EU. To this end we no longer build satellites that we ourselves would like to have, but ones that the public need.

FLUG REVUE: If ESA cannot stay the same as it was, then what form does it need to take?

Dordain: It is not easy for me to change the working culture of an organisation that has been consistently successful. In the past, we offered solutions and then found the problem which our solutions could solve. Today we have to do precisely the opposite, as ESA is no longer required to work for space, but instead for society and the scientific community. As a result of this integration, ESA will change, and if we manage that, then exciting times will lie before us.

FLUG REVUE: ESA's Aurora programme has been around since 2001. Why is this so little known, and what is the problem with your information policy?

Dordain: Perhaps there are in fact still gaps in what the public knows about our intentions. At least the fantastic scientific missions, such as Mars Express and Cassini, are bringing our work increasingly to the attention of the taxpayers. We didn't wait for the American President to give us a pointer for the future. But that is the main difference [between us and NASA]: the American initiative was formulated not by NASA's Administrator, Sean O'Keefe, but by the President. In Europe, people are much less interested in the strategic ideas of the ESA Director General. I too am more interested in knowing about the space strategy of President Chirac, Chancellor Schröder and the other European politicians. Who remembers today who was the NASA Administrator when President Kennedy launched the lunar flight programme? The public would like to hear for once from the decision-makers how they plan to tackle such problems, whether they have any visions for the future.

FLUG REVUE: ESA has better relations with Russia and China than ever before. Do you see a new alliance here, especially as regards the Americans' entitlement to the leading role on all major spaceflight missions of the future?

Dordain: No. Russia and China are not alternatives to the USA. But if there is something that all the other space nations can learn from us, then it is international co-operation. We are not afraid of demands to take a leading role. On large, expensive projects, someone has to take the lead, someone has to co-ordinate the work. So if the USA is providing two-thirds of the funding on a project, then it is only normal that it should have its say. We just need to take care that we stay independent. The ISS shows that is possible.

Russia is our neighbour, a country with a European culture and fantastic space experience. Sufficient reason for us to nurture close contacts with the experts there. Thus, after the USA Russia is our most important partner in the future. China is another story. It is further away from us, not just geographically, but also culturally, yet one can't ignore this nation with its booming economy. We are working together on scientific projects, we are co-operating on Galileo and we will definitely expand the scope of our co-operation. Nevertheless, I would not consider China on the same level as Russia or the USA at present.

FLUG REVUE: Sometimes even the established members of ESA can't agree, for example, over the project for the Vega small launcher. How would you assess such conflicts?

Dordain: That is the essence of our co-operation. It is always a mixture of specific interests. We cannot ignore this, nor would we wish to. What options might we have then in the case of Vega? Should we say that it is enough to have the Rokot and deliver the death blow to the Italian [space] industry? Can we continue relying for eternity on the Rokot to guarantee our access to space? The answer is no, as the Rokot is no longer being built and current stocks are already being used up. Naturally there are still a large number of them, but the supply of even these is finite. So, do we wait for the Rokot supplies to run out before we get a development of our own under way? Definitely not. As far as I'm concerned, the Vega is good for Europe. But the Vega will not be operationally ready before 2008. By then, the Rokot will have no competition, and we ourselves as ESA will be the customer for this rocket. Thus, as far as ESA is concerned, there are more important issues than the differences between these small launchers.

From page 21 of FLUG REVUE 1/2005

Last updated 12 December 2004

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