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Space for Ambitions: The Dutch Space Program in Changing European and Transatlantic Contexts

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Abstract

Why would a small country like the Netherlands become active in space? The field was monopolized by large countries with large military establishments, especially in the early years of spaceflight. Nevertheless, the Netherlands established a space program in the late 1960s. In this paper I will analyze the backgrounds of Dutch space policy in international post-war politics, national industrial policy, and science. After the Second World War, European space activities were shaped by the interplay between transatlantic and European cooperation and competition, limited by American Cold War diplomacy. At the national level, the Dutch space program was shaped firstly by two powerful companies, Philips electronics and Fokker Aircraft. As I will demonstrate, these two firms sought to gain crucial management skills as well as technological ones. Meanwhile, the nation’s astronomers were able to capitalize on an advantageous confluence of political, economic and scientific ambitions to forward their own agenda. They succeeded in obtaining two of the most expensive scientific instruments ever built in the Netherlands: the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite (ANS, launched 1974) and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS, 1983). Both were joint Dutch-American missions, but the nature of the cooperation on each was very different, reflecting the changing relationship between America and Western Europe from the 1950s until the 1980s.

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Notes

  1. An excellent overview of the literature about European space programs is provided by Zellmayer (2008: 23–30).

  2. Van Kasteren (2002) compiled a brief overview in the context of the ESA history project; De Kort (2003) provides a more extensive history.

  3. http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/about/space_act1.html.

  4. Letter from Edgar L. Piret, US embassy in Paris, 19-12-1963, NACP, RC59: State Department records, file SP11.

  5. Oort to Koksma, 18-8-1959, GROC 347-16.

  6. Letter from Luns, 23-1-1960, NATH, Algemene Zaken records, file 5714.

  7. NATH, Algemene Zaken records, file 7509; GROC 347-16.

  8. Oort and Van de Hulst, 9-6-1960, and: Luns, 18-6-1960, GROC 347-16.

  9. Interviews by the author with Cees de Jager and Harry van der Laan.

  10. Budgets in GROC.

  11. NATH, Binnenlandse Zaken records, file 5591; GROC meeting of 20-10-1965 in GROC file 7-5; Van de Hulst 1992.

  12. Groninger Archieven, 2402 Archief Blaauw, inv. 27: correspondence between Borgman and A. Blaauw.

  13. HCH 7, Nittel report 1962.

  14. NATH, Binnenlandse Zaken records, file 5577.

  15. Interview by the author with Jan de Koomen; cf. PCA, file 821:921.94 ruimtevaartindustrie, no.1b (report "Some considerations on a scientific satellite," July 1963).

  16. This argument was used, for example, in: letters from industry in NATH, Binnenlandse Zaken records, file 5577; Jaaradvies RAWB 1976, Kamerstuk 13918, Handelingen van de Tweede Kamer 1975–1976, p. 28; IRAS proposals in NRM; remarks by Minister Nelissen (Economic Affairs) in Parliament, 12-11-1970, Handelingen van de Tweede Kamer 1970–1971, pp. 940–941. Cf. interviews by the author with Reinder van Duinen and Jan de Koomen.

  17. PCA file 821:921.94 no. 1, Voorstel van de Nederlandse electronische- en vliegtuigindustrie voor de ontwikkeling van een Nederlandse astronomische satelliet, (1966).

  18. Cf. memo January 1966, NATH, Onderwijs en Wetenschappen Records, File 585.

  19. Bondi to Hoogewegen, 20-7-1970, NATH, Onderwijs en Wetenschappen Records, File 585.

  20. NATH, Binnenlandse Zaken records, file 5586.

  21. Piekaar, remark in margin of a letter from GROC, 29-12-1965, NATH, Onderwijs en Wetenschappen Records, File 585.

  22. For example, in a memo to the prime minister, 24-6-1976, NATH, Algemene Zaken records, file 10110; cf NATH, Binnenlandse Zaken records, file 5591.

  23. Handelingen van de Tweede Kamer 1973–1974 doc.no. 12932. Muller (1997: 86) estimates the total costs at f150M, possibly correcting for inflation.

  24. Handelingen van de Tweede Kamer 1970–1971, pp. 940–941.

  25. PCA, file 821:921.94 no. 3.

  26. Handelingen van de Tweede Kamer 1974–1975, doc.no. 13100 XIII; and idem, 1975–1976, doc.no. 13918, p.28.

  27. PCA file 821:921.94 no. 3.

  28. Ibidem.

  29. IRAS proposal 1974 in NRM; Kieboom to Lubbers 26-1-1976, and report Ruimtevaart en nationale doelstellingen, 1976, NATH, Algemene Zaken Records, File 10110.

  30. McKinsey report 1973, NATH, Algemene Zaken Records, File 10110.

  31. Minutes of GROC brainstorm 10-11-1971, HCH, box 53; cf Oort to De Jager, 19-11-1962, Leiden University Library, Oort papers, file 272c.

  32. IRAS proposal 1974, NRM.

  33. Interim report on The IRAS mission definition by Walker, 19-9-1975, SRON; see also Waldrop (1983); Price (2009: 237–341).

  34. Van der Laan to Borgman, 11-4-1975, SRON, file IRAS correspondence 1975.

  35. Mather and Boslough (1996: 124); See also: minutes 24/25-6-1975, SRON, IRAS files. The Cornell proposal was closest to the Dutch one.

  36. HCH, files 26 and 55.

  37. Frutkin to B. Murray, 21 June 1976, NASA Historical Reference Collection, record no. 006069.

  38. Infrared Astronomical Satellite: Technical Lessons Learned (JPL 1983), National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, IRAS accession files; cf. Waldrop (1983), Tucker and Tucker (1986: 150).

  39. Catalogues at http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/iras/i_products.cfm; see also a special issue of Astrophysical Journal, January 1984.

  40. See, for example, www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/science.html.

  41. RAWB Advies inzake ruimtevaart 1980, HCH, file 123.

  42. Letter from Pais, 5-11-1980, GROC 347-9/10.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and a grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). I thank David DeVorkin, Roger Launius, John Krige, Frans van Lunteren, Harm Habing, Klaas van Berkel and Hermione Giffard for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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  1. FEW ALV, VU University, Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    David M. Baneke

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Baneke, D.M. Space for Ambitions: The Dutch Space Program in Changing European and Transatlantic Contexts. Minerva 52, 119–140 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-014-9244-3

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