Raymond Orye, 1931-2022

Born in 1931 in Hasselt, in the Flemish province of Limburg, Belgium, Raymond Orye graduated from the Royal Military Academy in 1954, as part of the 104th class. Trained in mechanical and electrical engineering at the academy’s polytechnic division in Brussels, he completed a postgraduate course on guided weapons at the College of Aeronautics in Cranfield, UK, with a specialisation in aerodynamics, guidance and control, in 1958.

A career officer and a military engineer in the Belgian army, Raymond held various technical positions, at the Anti-Aircraft Artillery School and the Land Component Operational Command, notably being involved in the commissioning of the Hawk surface-to-air missile. He was also assigned operational functions in Bonn and Aachen, West Germany.

After reading in a newspaper that Belgium would join the European Space Research Organisation and the European Launcher Development Organisation, as a founding member of each, Raymond contacted Marcel Depasse, the Director of the Scientific Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Depasse headed the Belgian delegation for the related negotiations). From 1962 to 1966, Depasse was at the centre of the activities leading to the setting up of ELDO’s Secretariat structure, recruitment of staff and development of personnel, finance and contract regulations. The ELDO Convention was signed in London on 29 March 1962, entering into force on 29 February 1964.

With the agreement of the Belgian army, Raymond took up duty at ELDO’s technical directorate in March 1963 in Neuilly, working first on the planning of the Europa 1 launcher programme, and then on its technical management. Learning from Europa 1 and 2 mishaps (the Blue Streak, Coralie, and Astris stages being unevenly industrialised), the development of the Europa 3 launcher was entrusted to ELDO, including the contractual authority, allowing a more effective management at system and interface levels. Following the UK’s withdrawal from ELDO programmes, and the launch failure of Europa 2 on 5 November 1971 from Kourou (F11), an internal reorganisation was soon implemented.

On 27 April 1973, the ELDO Council decided to wind down the organisation. France proposed to ‘Europeanise’ the so-called LIIIS (third-generation launcher to replace Europa 3), and in September 1973 a draft arrangement between ESRO and European governments was approved for the execution of the programme, later named Ariane.

ELDO’s Secretary General Robert Aubinière offered Raymond Orye the lead in the implementation of Ariane, considering his project control experience, with the development being carried out by CNES. France, supported by Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium, was consistent in pursuing their objective to secure European independent access to space, despite the decision of the newly elected President Valery Giscard d’Estaing to reassess all major investment programmes, including Ariane.

Optimistic by nature, and in line with the pragmatic approach proposed, Raymond joined ESRO, once the contracts of the Europa 3 preparatory development programme terminated. In moving from ELDO to ESRO, he took a small team with him, including Walter Naumann, Max Hauzeur, Carlo Dana, Klaus Krüger and André Bellot. A few colleagues returned to CNES, such as Yves Sillard, Frédéric d'Allest and Roger Vignelles, forming the nucleus of the Directorate of Launchers there.

Ariane’s management scheme was completely new, ESA being the contracting authority responsible for, among other things, the control of execution, while CNES had received a mandate from the Participating States to manage, as prime contractor, the European programme.

After the creation of a single European Space Agency on 30 May 1975, Raymond headed the ESA’s Ariane Department, supervising the implementation of the various launcher versions: Ariane 1, Ariane 2 and 3, Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 including its extended version Ariane 5 Evolution.

Before the setting up of Arianespace, the world's first commercial launch service provider, Raymond was also in charge of promoting Ariane’s use in and outside Europe (for example, procuring three launches for Intelsat, the global leader on the satcom market). After 1980, he was a member of Arianespace’s Shareholders Board of Directors. As an important spin-off of the so-called ‘TCI Affair’*, he actively participated in the negotiations with US and Russian governments on the international launch services market.

Raymond participated in the first ESA mission to China, in February 1979 (the European delegation to Beijing was headed by Roy Gibson, ESA’s first Director General). Raymond was also entrusted with the implementation of the cooperation with CNES at the Guiana Space Centre, from ELDO’s equatorial launch base constructed for Europa 2, to ELA 3 (Ensemble de Lancement Ariane), including the selection of a launch site for Europa 3, located in Malmanouri (between Kourou and Sinamary, near the CNES Diane telemetry station).

Raymond retired on 1 October 1996. Many of his achievements are documented in history books, such as La contribution de la Belgique à l’aventure spatiale européenne, des origines à 1973, by Dawinka Laureys (Paris, Beauchesne, 2008), or the two volumes of A History of the European Space Agency, 1958–1987, led by Prof. John Krige (Noordwijk, ESA Publications, 2000).

Raymond himself published numerous testimonies and articles, among which is a chapter in the book Ariane 4 – Témoignages, tome 3, 1988-2003. For the 40th anniversary of Ariane’s maiden flight, he wrote a chapter on the legacy of ELDO and the Europeanisation of LIIIS, together with Walter Naumann, Carlo Dana and Georges Armand, in the book 40 ans L01 – Témoignages, Paris, 3A Cnes, pp 19-24.

He was also interviewed by David Redon for ESA’s ‘Oral History of Europe in Space’ collection, in the early 2000s. The recording encapsulates the pioneering spirit of the time, and Raymond’s unique tone of voice.

Raymond was extremely respected in the launcher community and will be remembered for his outstanding managerial experience and engineering skills, as well as for his natural authority. A pillar of ESA Headquarters in rue Mario Nikis in the 1980s, he used to conclude his briefings by a vibrant: “Ce sont mes ordres, l’intendance suivra,” (‘Those are my orders, stewardship will follow.’).

In recognition of his distinguished service to France, as foreign resident, he was conferred with the rank of Knight in the French Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur in January 1980 and then the rank of Officer in March 2002.

Our thoughts are with his wife, family, friends and former colleagues.

*On 25 May 1984, two days after the ninth Ariane launch (L09) from Kourou, a Maryland-based firm called Transpace Carriers Inc., the first private American launch service company, had filed a petition against 11 European governments and their ‘space-related instrumentalities’, to the Office of the US Trade Representative, under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

They were accused of aiding and abetting Arianespace, in ‘illegally dumping its rocket launch services on the U.S. market’. This first legal challenge against Arianespace also called into question the pricing of the Space Shuttle. How far rockets used for commercial launch services were subsidised by their respective governments was at stake. The most important outcome of the negotiations was the agreement to start consultations on defining rules of the road regarding government support to the commercial launch industry.

President Reagan’s decision on 17 July 1985 rejected the TCI petition. “Many of the factual allegations were not supported by evidence on the record,” stated Reagan. “While other allegations were substantiated,” he went on, “The practices were not sufficiently different from US practice in this field to be considered unreasonable under Section 301.”

See ‘The commercial challenge to Arianespace: the TCI affair’ by John Krige in Space Policy 15 (1999), pages 87-94).