European Centre for Space Records
The ESA Archives preserve ESA’s institutional memory and promote and exploit Europe’s technical and scientific legacy in space. The Archives exist in two different physical locations in Italy: the European Centre for Space Records at ESRIN, Frascati, and the Historical Archives of the European Union, based at the European University Institute in Florence.
European Centre for Space Records
The European Centre for Space Records (ECSR) was established in 2002 as a dedicated location to host technical documentation related to ESA projects and missions.
The archives include collections such as Envisat, Rosetta, Artemis, ISO, MSG, Cluster, ERS, SOHO and XMM, among many more. From 2017, with the move of the HQ Archives to the ECSR, it became not only the centre for all ESA projects and missions, but also for material on all administrative and legal affairs and decision-making processes. The centre also hosts all signed original contracts and has a substantial collection of negatives and photographs as well as a large collection of microfiche and some artefacts. The collections span the entire history of the Agency: from its beginnings in 1959 stemming from an idea of Edoardo Amaldi and Pierre Auger, through the ESRO and ELDO years, to the establishment of ESA in 1975 and the years following. Today, the centre holds an impressive seven linear kilometres of documents.
Historical Archives of the European Union
Since 1989, the historical archives of ESA are kept at the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU), based at the European University Institute in Florence. These collections form the institutional memory of the Agency and its predecessor organisations: the European Preparatory Commission for Space Research (COPERS — Commission Préparatoire Européenne de Recherches Spatiales), the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), and the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), as well as from the European Space Conference (ESC) and the European Conference on Satellite Communications (CETS). To date, around 12 000 digital files are available.
Since the beginning of May 2019 the ESA Historical Archives are available online to the public where the digitised paper documents of ESA and its predecessor organisations CETS, COPERS, ELDO, ESC and ESRO can be accessed via the HAEU website.
The ESA Historical Archives Portal
In January 2023, to mark the 20th anniversary of the ECSR, and as part of ongoing digitisation activities, the ESA Historical Archives Portal was launched. It brings together the archives digital holdings from both the ECSR and ESA historical archives at the HAEU, making this resource for anyone with an interest in Europe’s story in space and enabling ESA, its member states and the international research community to exploit this rich heritage.
How we can help you
The Archives Team of the Director General’s Cabinet is responsible for the management of archives across the Agency. The team has more than 20 years of experience working with the ESA Archives and is based in ESRIN in Frascati, Italy.
We can help you with your research, from locating the hardest to find piece of information to supporting you in putting in place a successful digitisation project. The team also offers ‘digitisation’ services of high quality that are compliant with preservation standards and guidelines.
If you have any questions or need advice on how to manage your records and archives, or if you would like to visit the ECSR, contact us at: