Crossing the interface from R&D to operational use: The case of the European meteorological satellite

Technology and Culture

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 27-50

  Krige, John ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034423377     PISSN: 0040165X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tech.2000.0021     Document Type: Article

References (89)

1. For the dynamics of the U.S. space program, see Walter A. McDougall, . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York, 1985). For a history of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as such, see Roger D. Launius, NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (Malabar, Fla., 1994). On telecommunications satellites, see Andrew J. Butrica, ed., Beyond the Ionosphere: Fifty Years of Satellite Communication (Washington, D.C., 1997). The early history of the European space program is described in John Krige and Arturo Russo, Europe in Space, 1960-1973 (Noordwijk, Neth., 1994). This article is a condensed version of John Krige, The European Meteorological Satellite Programme (Noordwijk, Neth., 1998).
2. For the dynamics of the U.S. space program, see Walter A. McDougall, . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York, 1985). For a history of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as such, see Roger D. Launius, NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (Malabar, Fla., 1994). On telecommunications satellites, see Andrew J. Butrica, ed., Beyond the Ionosphere: Fifty Years of Satellite Communication (Washington, D.C., 1997). The early history of the European space program is described in John Krige and Arturo Russo, Europe in Space, 1960-1973 (Noordwijk, Neth., 1994). This article is a condensed version of John Krige, The European Meteorological Satellite Programme (Noordwijk, Neth., 1998).
3. For the dynamics of the U.S. space program, see Walter A. McDougall, . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York, 1985). For a history of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as such, see Roger D. Launius, NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (Malabar, Fla., 1994). On telecommunications satellites, see Andrew J. Butrica, ed., Beyond the Ionosphere: Fifty Years of Satellite Communication (Washington, D.C., 1997). The early history of the European space program is described in John Krige and Arturo Russo, Europe in Space, 1960-1973 (Noordwijk, Neth., 1994). This article is a condensed version of John Krige, The European Meteorological Satellite Programme (Noordwijk, Neth., 1998).
4. For the dynamics of the U.S. space program, see Walter A. McDougall, . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York, 1985). For a history of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as such, see Roger D. Launius, NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (Malabar, Fla., 1994). On telecommunications satellites, see Andrew J. Butrica, ed., Beyond the Ionosphere: Fifty Years of Satellite Communication (Washington, D.C., 1997). The early history of the European space program is described in John Krige and Arturo Russo, Europe in Space, 1960-1973 (Noordwijk, Neth., 1994). This article is a condensed version of John Krige, The European Meteorological Satellite Programme (Noordwijk, Neth., 1998).
5. For the dynamics of the U.S. space program, see Walter A. McDougall, . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York, 1985). For a history of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as such, see Roger D. Launius, NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (Malabar, Fla., 1994). On telecommunications satellites, see Andrew J. Butrica, ed., Beyond the Ionosphere: Fifty Years of Satellite Communication (Washington, D.C., 1997). The early history of the European space program is described in John Krige and Arturo Russo, Europe in Space, 1960-1973 (Noordwijk, Neth., 1994). This article is a condensed version of John Krige, The European Meteorological Satellite Programme (Noordwijk, Neth., 1998).
6. Pamela E. Mack, Viewing the Earth: The Social Construction of the Landsat Satellite System (Cambridge, Mass., 1990), 15. See also Pamela E. Mack, "Making Big Technology Serve the User: U.S. Remote Sensing Programs," in Choosing Big Technologies, ed. John Krige (Chur, Switz., 1993), 95-107.
7. Pamela E. Mack, Viewing the Earth: The Social Construction of the Landsat Satellite System (Cambridge, Mass., 1990), 15. See also Pamela E. Mack, "Making Big Technology Serve the User: U.S. Remote Sensing Programs," in Choosing Big Technologies, ed. John Krige (Chur, Switz., 1993), 95-107.
8. Roy Gibson, "Squabbles in Space," Nature, 5 June 1997, 567-68.
9. Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "The Consumption Junction: A Proposal for Research Strategies in the Sociology of Technology," in The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, ed. Wiebe E. Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, and Trevor Pinch (Cambridge, Mass., 1994), 262.
10. All primary sources are to be found in the historical archives of the European Space Agency, which are kept at the European University Institute, Florence. For Meteosat, in addition to the official minutes of meetings and the papers prepared for them, which are accessible as such in the archive, there is an excellent personal collection of papers deposited in the same archive by Régis Tessier (documents from Tessier's papers cited herein are identified as RT plus a document number - e.g., RT52012). Tessier was administratively responsible for the meteorological satellite program in house for the entire period covered here, and was a privileged recipient of a large amount of correspondence and minutes of informal meetings of the meteorologists.
11. For a picture of the situation at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth as described through the biography of one main practitioner, see Robert Marc Friedman, Appropriating the Weather: Wilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology (Ithaca, N.Y., 1989). A less detailed study covering a broader time span is F. Nebeker, Calculating the Weather: Meteorology in the Twentieth Century (New York, 1995). See also J. R. Fleming, ed., Historical Essays on Meteorology, 1919-1995 (Boston, 1996).
12. For a picture of the situation at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth as described through the biography of one main practitioner, see Robert Marc Friedman, Appropriating the Weather: Wilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology (Ithaca, N.Y., 1989). A less detailed study covering a broader time span is F. Nebeker, Calculating the Weather: Meteorology in the Twentieth Century (New York, 1995). See also J. R. Fleming, ed., Historical Essays on Meteorology, 1919-1995 (Boston, 1996).
13. For a picture of the situation at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth as described through the biography of one main practitioner, see Robert Marc Friedman, Appropriating the Weather: Wilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology (Ithaca, N.Y., 1989). A less detailed study covering a broader time span is F. Nebeker, Calculating the Weather: Meteorology in the Twentieth Century (New York, 1995). See also J. R. Fleming, ed., Historical Essays on Meteorology, 1919-1995 (Boston, 1996).
14. For a general discussion of the importance of World War II in the development of applied mathematics and in meteorology, see A. Dahan Dalmedico, "L'Essor des mathématiques appliquées aux Etats-Unis: L'Impact de la seconde guerre mondiale," Revue d'histoire des mathématiques 2 (1996): 149-213.
15. Bert Bolin, The Global Atmospheric Research Programme: A Co-operative Effort to Explore the Weather and Climate of Our Planet (Geneva, 1971), RT52012. Jule Charney, one of the leaders of numerical modeling of the atmosphere in the United States, agrees. Before the advent of satellites, he says, "both the forecaster and the investigator were forced to content themselves with such highly oversimplified descriptions or models of the atmosphere that forecasting remained largely a matter of extrapolation and memory"; quoted in Nebeker, 178.
16. Bert Bolin, The Global Atmospheric Research Programme: A Co-operative Effort to Explore the Weather and Climate of Our Planet (Geneva, 1971), RT52012. Jule Charney, one of the leaders of numerical modeling of the atmosphere in the United States, agrees. Before the advent of satellites, he says, "both the forecaster and the investigator were forced to content themselves with such highly oversimplified descriptions or models of the atmosphere that forecasting remained largely a matter of extrapolation and memory"; quoted in Nebeker, 178.
17. Nebeker, chap. 11, describes these techniques and the irregular pattern of their disappearance.
18. Ibid., 173.
19. In cooperation with the Swedish Air Force Weather Service; ibid., 160.
20. L. Bengtsson, "Development in Atmospheric Modeling and Weather Prediction: The Role and Contribution of ECMWF [European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting]," in Proceedings of Cost Forum, Vienna, 22 November 1991, ed. A. Klose and I. Dusak (Brussels, 1992). The convention establishing the ECMWF was signed in May 1973 by seventeen countries, and it entered into force in October 1975.
21. For the U.S. program, see Janice Hill, Weather from Above: America's Meteorological Satellites (Washington, D.C., 1991).
22. See Ken Stewart, "The Significance of Meteosat for Meteorology," ESA Bulletin 11 (1977): 6-10. See also an unsigned, undated paper prepared for a meeting of European meteorologists with NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) officials in February 1971, RT52004.
23. On the International Geophysical Year, see notably Rip Bulkeley, The Sputniks Crisis and Early United States Space Policy (Bloomington, Ind., 1991).
24. See Annex 3 to the minutes of the Première Réunion du Groupe 'Ad-Hoc' Météorologie, held in Geneva on 13 June 1969, which was written by Bolin, RT52002, as well as Bolin, The Global Atmospheric Research Programme (n. 8 above).
25. See Annex 3 to the minutes of the Première Réunion du Groupe 'Ad-Hoc' Météorologie, held in Geneva on 13 June 1969, which was written by Bolin, RT52002, as well as Bolin, The Global Atmospheric Research Programme (n. 8 above).
26. These are described in the minutes of the third meeting of the Meteorology Ad Hoc Group held in Brussels on 26 October 1970, RT52003.
27. For a history of CNES see Claude Carlier and Marcel Gilli, Les trente premières années du CNES (Paris, 1994). For a general discussion of the motivations of the French space program, see Walter A. McDougall, "Space-Age Europe: Gaullism, Euro-gaullism, and the American Dilemma," Technology and Culture 25 (1985): 180-203, and Lorenza Sebesta, "La science, instrument politique de securité nationale? L'Espace, la France et l'Europe," Revue d'histoire diplomatique 4 (1992): 313-41.
28. For a history of CNES see Claude Carlier and Marcel Gilli, Les trente premières années du CNES (Paris, 1994). For a general discussion of the motivations of the French space program, see Walter A. McDougall, "Space-Age Europe: Gaullism, Euro-gaullism, and the American Dilemma," Technology and Culture 25 (1985): 180-203, and Lorenza Sebesta, "La science, instrument politique de securité nationale? L'Espace, la France et l'Europe," Revue d'histoire diplomatique 4 (1992): 313-41.
29. For a history of CNES see Claude Carlier and Marcel Gilli, Les trente premières années du CNES (Paris, 1994). For a general discussion of the motivations of the French space program, see Walter A. McDougall, "Space-Age Europe: Gaullism, Euro-gaullism, and the American Dilemma," Technology and Culture 25 (1985): 180-203, and Lorenza Sebesta, "La science, instrument politique de securité nationale? L'Espace, la France et l'Europe," Revue d'histoire diplomatique 4 (1992): 313-41.
30. See Note sur le projet de satellite météorologique français géostationnaire, dated June 1969, RT52001; the questionnaire drawn up by H. Felix, CNES paper No. 7/METEOSAT, 22 April I960, RT52001; O. Carel, Specifications des utilisateurs de Météosat, CNES/PR/AM-ME/No.70T.12.4, 2 July 1970, RT52003; and Le système Météosat, prepared by H. Felix, March 1971, RT52011.
31. See Note sur le projet de satellite météorologique français géostationnaire, dated June 1969, RT52001; the questionnaire drawn up by H. Felix, CNES paper No. 7/METEOSAT, 22 April I960, RT52001; O. Carel, Specifications des utilisateurs de Météosat, CNES/PR/AM-ME/No.70T.12.4, 2 July 1970, RT52003; and Le système Météosat, prepared by H. Felix, March 1971, RT52011.
32. See Note sur le projet de satellite météorologique français géostationnaire, dated June 1969, RT52001; the questionnaire drawn up by H. Felix, CNES paper No. 7/METEOSAT, 22 April I960, RT52001; O. Carel, Specifications des utilisateurs de Météosat, CNES/PR/AM-ME/No.70T.12.4, 2 July 1970, RT52003; and Le système Météosat, prepared by H. Felix, March 1971, RT52011.
33. Note sur le projet de satellite météorologique.
34. For this project see the Report on Studies Carried out in 1969 in the Field of Meteorological Activities, ESRO/ST/344, 9 February 1970, presented to ESRO's Scientific and Technical Committee at its meeting on 24 February 1970.
35. J. Bessemoulin (head of the French meteorological services) to H. Bondi, 7 December 1970, and M. Bignier (CNES President) to H. Bondi, 10 December 1970, in RT52004.
36. These are described in detail in Krige and Russo (n. 1 above), chap. 9.
37. The letter was circulated as Annex I to ESRO/C(71)36.
38. This feeling was recently expressed to me by André Lebeau, who was leading the French team at the time. Lebeau was also disappointed because he clearly hoped to build a career inside CNES around this project.
39. The AU, or Accounting Unit, was a fictitious common currency unit introduced by ESRO and ESA to simplify internal bookkeeping. It was originally aligned on the U.S. dollar. It is similar to the Euro today.
40. For general accounts of the decision-making structures of ESRO/ESA, see Roger M. Bonnet and Vittorio Manno, International Cooperation in Space: The Example of the European Space Agency (Cambridge, 1994), chap. 2; Kevin Madders, A New Force at a New Frontier (Cambridge, 1997), chap. 11; and Stacia E. Zabusky, Launching Europe: An Ethnography of European Cooperation in Space Science (Princeton, N.J., 1995), chap. 2.
41. For general accounts of the decision-making structures of ESRO/ESA, see Roger M. Bonnet and Vittorio Manno, International Cooperation in Space: The Example of the European Space Agency (Cambridge, 1994), chap. 2; Kevin Madders, A New Force at a New Frontier (Cambridge, 1997), chap. 11; and Stacia E. Zabusky, Launching Europe: An Ethnography of European Cooperation in Space Science (Princeton, N.J., 1995), chap. 2.
42. For general accounts of the decision-making structures of ESRO/ESA, see Roger M. Bonnet and Vittorio Manno, International Cooperation in Space: The Example of the European Space Agency (Cambridge, 1994), chap. 2; Kevin Madders, A New Force at a New Frontier (Cambridge, 1997), chap. 11; and Stacia E. Zabusky, Launching Europe: An Ethnography of European Cooperation in Space Science (Princeton, N.J., 1995), chap. 2.
43. The distinction is, we all know, too simple. If a British computer was in competition with an American one for data-handling purposes a British member of the STAG would be hard put not to stress the technical merits of his country's product, at least in official statements.
44. I thank Régis Tessier for these details.
45. For this debate, see ESRO/PB-MET/MIN/13, 26 November 1974; ESA/C(77)34, 27 April 1977; and ESA/PB-MET/MIN/7, 7 December 1976.
46. See ESA/PB-MET(76)5, 16 January 1976; ESA/PB-MET(76) 15, 15 October 1976; and ESA/SMWG/(76)8, notes on a meeting held on 29 September 1976, from which the final quotation is taken.
47. For this debate and its conclusions, see ESA/PB-MET/VI/Res. 1 of 27 October 1976; ESA/PB-MET/VII/Res. of 7 July 1976; and ESA/PB-MET/MIN/8, meeting held on 11 March 1977.
48. For the weight that European space scientists placed on respecting their engagements with the United States and the resentment they felt when NASA seemed far more nonchalant about its agreements with Europe, see Bonnet and Manno (n. 27 above), chap. 5.
49. ESA/PB-MET(80)13, 30 April 1980, and ESA/C(80)45, 14 May 1980.
50. ESA/PB-MET/MIN/24, 24 November 1980.
51. Its launch was delayed due to the failure of Ariane's second launch.
52. ESA/PB-MET(82)12, 24 March 1982.
53. ESA/PB-MET/XXXVI/Res 1 (Final), 16 June 1983.
54. All of the information that follows on this conference is from its minutes and their annexes unless otherwise stated; document CONF/OP.MET/MIN/1 and Annexes I-V, 18 February 1981, ESA 5447.
55. For the applications of meteorological data and for a cost-benefit analysis of such a program, see, respectively, CONF/ORMET/4, 28 November 1980, and CONF/ OP.MET/5, 20 November 1980, ESA5450.
56. Memorandum, Tessier to DG, 17 January 1983, ESA5524.
57. The minutes of the conference are CONF/OP.MET/MIN/2, ESA5446.
58. The draft minutes were written by legal expert G. Lafferranderie, and are in file ESA5546.
59. Stewart (n. 14 above).
60. N. Rasmussen, Picture Control: The Electron Microscope and the Transformation of Biology in America, 1940-1960 (Stanford, Calif., 1997), 29.
61. Margaret E. Courain, "Technology Reconciliation in the Remote Sensing Area of United States Civilian Weather Forecasting, 1957-1987" (Ph.D. diss., Rutgers University, 1991), 4. am grateful to Pamela Mack for drawing my attention to this thesis and for making a copy available to me. For a history of weather maps, see Mark Monmonier, Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Leaned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather (Chicago, 1999).
62. Margaret E. Courain, "Technology Reconciliation in the Remote Sensing Area of United States Civilian Weather Forecasting, 1957-1987" (Ph.D. diss., Rutgers University, 1991), 4. am grateful to Pamela Mack for drawing my attention to this thesis and for making a copy available to me. For a history of weather maps, see Mark Monmonier, Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Leaned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather (Chicago, 1999).
63. Ibid., 377.
64. The change in NASA's ethos has been argued for in Howard E. McCurdy, Inside NASA: High Technology and Organizational Change in the U.S. Space Program (Baltimore, 1993). McCurdy claims convincingly that NASA became far more bureaucratic and less R&D oriented in the 1980s, after the period concentrated on by Mack.
65. Mack, "U.S. Remote Sensing Programs" (n. 2 above), 100, 101.
66. Rasmussen, 29, emphasis in the original.
67. On the importance of coalition building in the space arena, see Robert W. Smith, The Space Telescope: A Study of NASA, Science, Technology and Politics (Cambridge, 1989).
68. For the scientific users meetings, see the reports ESA/PB-MET(79)21, 3 September 1979, and ESA/PB-MET(80)17, 22 April 1980.
69. This recommendation is appended to a report by Tessier and Barbance to the ESA DG on a meeting held at the WMO on 20-21 January 1978.
70. The point was stressed by Tessier, who was in contact with the project for twenty years.
71. J. Morgan, "Eumetsat, the European Organisation for Meteorological Satellites," in Proceedings of the ESA/EUI International Colloquium, The Implementation of the ESA Convention: Lessons from the Past (Dordrecht, 1994), 168.
72. The quotation is from the minutes of the second intergovernmental conference, CONF/OP-MET/MIN/2, 8 April 1983. The words are those of the French delegation.
73. Mack, "U.S. Remote Sensing Programs," (n. 2 above), 99.
74. This paragraph is based on MOPWG1(81)4, 11 February 1981, ESA5531; MOPWG2(81)7, 13 July 1981, ESA5539; Annex 1 to the Draft Eumetsat convention, MOPWG4(81)40, 23 June 1981, ESA5542; and CONF/OP.MET/10, 9 February 1983, ESA5455.
75. For an idea of the variety of such structures, see J. Krige and L. Guzzetti, History of European Scientific and Technological Cooperation (Brussels, 1997).
76. Memorandum, Lebeau to Gibson, 11 December 1978, ESA5532.
77. Memorandum, Tessier to Quistgaard, 10 March 1983, ESA5555.
78. CONF/OP.MET/MIN/1, 18 February 1981.
79. "Comsat Wants to Take Over Combined Landsat/NOAA System," Defence Daily, 24 July 1981, 130, and "Commercial Operation of Remote Sensing Satellites Possible," Aerospace Daily, 24 July 1981, 134. On the conflicts with Europe over deregulation in the field of launchers, where the Reagan administration promoted the privatization of expendable launch vehicles, see J. Krige, "The Commercial Challenge to Arianespace: The TCI Affair," Space Policy 15 (1999): 87-94.
80. "Comsat Wants to Take Over Combined Landsat/NOAA System," Defence Daily, 24 July 1981, 130, and "Commercial Operation of Remote Sensing Satellites Possible," Aerospace Daily, 24 July 1981, 134. On the conflicts with Europe over deregulation in the field of launchers, where the Reagan administration promoted the privatization of expendable launch vehicles, see J. Krige, "The Commercial Challenge to Arianespace: The TCI Affair," Space Policy 15 (1999): 87-94.
81. "Comsat Wants to Take Over Combined Landsat/NOAA System," Defence Daily, 24 July 1981, 130, and "Commercial Operation of Remote Sensing Satellites Possible," Aerospace Daily, 24 July 1981, 134. On the conflicts with Europe over deregulation in the field of launchers, where the Reagan administration promoted the privatization of expendable launch vehicles, see J. Krige, "The Commercial Challenge to Arianespace: The TCI Affair," Space Policy 15 (1999): 87-94.
82. Memorandum, I. W. Pryke, ESA Washington office, to various ESA departments, "Commercialisation of U.S. Land Remote Sensing (and METSAT) Programme," 19 November 1982, to which the committee's recommendations are appended, ESA5543.
83. International Herald Tribune, 9 March 1983, and the Guardian, 9 March 1983.
84. International Herald Tribune, 9 March 1983, and the Guardian, 9 March 1983.
85. According to the French delegate to the March 1983 intergovernmental conference, CONF/OP-MET/MIN/2, document dated 8 April 1983.
86. Mack, "U.S. Remote Sensing Programs" (n. 2 above), gives some information on the Reagan and Carter policies.
87. Gibson (n. 3 above),
88. The phrase is Tessier's, from a conversation with the author, 15 October 1997.
89. I end as I began, with this phrase from Cowan (n. 4 above).