asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the nature of Ireland's involvement in the European Space Agency; if he will give a list of all satelites and other payloads launched under the auspices of the European Space Agency; in each case (i) the launch date, (ii) the purpose of the satellite or payload and (iii) whether Ireland has any access to any data collected by such satelite or payload; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - European Space Agency.
70.
Ireland is a full member of the European Space Agency (ESA) and has full voting rights and complete access to all ESA programmes. However, Ireland's involvement tends to be concentrated on the programmes which offer the best potential benefits to this country in terms of industrial application and spin-off.
ESA's role is confined to the development and qualification of space products, for exclusively peaceful purposes, and the demonstration of their ability to carry out their mission. The peaceful purposes aspect of ESA is enshrined in the Convention of the Agency. ESA is not itself involved in the launching of satelites or payloads, with the exception of eight launches which were undertaken as part of the qualification and promotion phases of the Ariane Launcher Development Programme during the period December 1979 to March 1984.
ESA satellites and payloads are launched under contract, either by NASA or wherever possible by Ariane-space — which is a private commercial company set up expressly to commercialise and market the Ariane launcher. A list of all the satellites-payloads launched under the auspices of ESA is attached, together with a description of their purposes. These satellites fall into three categories: (1) Scientific satellites, (2) Applications satellites launched on a commercial basis on behalf of a customer — normally with a view to selling services or data obtained and (3) experimental or test satellites.
Ireland has free access to any data obtained from scientific satelites. Regarding the applications satellites, Ireland has free access to the data obtained by the meteorological satellites, while the telecommunications satellites are service satellites, and therefore are not involved in data collection. Finally, the data obtained from the technological or test satellites is initially restricted to the participants in the programme concerned. If Ireland has decided not to participate in the programme, then we would not have a right to the data obtained from the experiment.
List of Satellites Launched under the Auspieces of ESA.
|
Date |
Satellite-Payload |
Launched By |
Purpose |
Irish Access |
|
9 August 1975 |
COS-B |
NASA |
Scientific Satellite for the study of extra terrestrial gamma radiation. |
Yes |
|
20 April 1977 |
GEOS-1 |
NASA |
Scientific Satellite for the study of particle fluxes, electric and magnetic fields in the outer magnetosphere. |
Yes |
|
22 October 1977 |
ISEE-B |
NASA |
Scientific Satellite for the study of the earth's magnetosphere in co-operation with NASA. ISEE-A satellite. |
Yes |
|
23 November 1977 |
Meteosat-1 |
NASA |
Applications Satellite—Meteorology. |
Yes |
|
26 January 1978 |
IUE |
NASA |
Scientific Satellite—an ultra-violet astronomy observatory in space. |
Yes |
|
11 May 1978 |
OTS-2 (Orbital Test Satellite) |
NASA |
Experimental Applications Satellite— Telecommunications. |
Yes |
|
24 July 1978 |
GEOS-2 |
NASA |
Scientific Satellite for the study of particle fluxes, electric and magnetic fields in the outer magnetosphere. |
Yes |
|
24 December 1979 |
CAT |
ESA |
Technological (Test) Satellite. |
Yes |
|
19 June 1981 |
CAT |
ESA |
Technological (Test) Satellite. |
Yes |
|
APPLE |
ESA |
Applications Satelite Telecommunications. |
— |
|
|
METEOSAT-2 |
ESA |
Application Satellite— Meteorology. |
Yes |
|
|
19 October 1981 |
MARCS A |
ESA |
Application Satellite— Telecommunications. |
— |
|
26 May 1983 |
EXOSAT |
NASA |
Scientific Satellite—an X-Ray astronomy Observatory in Space. |
Yes |
|
16 June 1983 |
ECS 1 |
ESA |
Application Satellite— Telecommunications. |
— |
|
OSCAR 10 |
ESA |
Applications Satellite— Telecommunications. |
— |
|
|
19 October 1983 |
INTELSAT V (F7) |
ESA |
Application Satellite— Telecommunications and TV. |
— |
|
5 March 1984 |
INTELSAT V (F8) |
ESA |
Applications Satellite— Telecommunications and TV. |
— |
|
4 August 1984 |
ECS-2 |
Ariane-space |
Applications Satellite— Telecommunications. |
— |
|
2 July 1985 |
GIOTTO |
Ariane-space |
Scientific Satellite—to rendezvouz with Haley's Comet and record scientific data. |
Yes |
|
16 September 1987 |
ECS-4 |
Ariane-space |
Applications Satellite— Telecommunications. |
— |
|
15 June 1988 |
METEOSAT P2 |
Ariane-space |
Applications Satellite— Meteorology. |
Yes |
|
26 January 1989 |
METEOSAT (MOP 1) |
Ariane-space |
Applications Satellite— Meteorology. |
Yes |