ESTRACK pre-history

The pre-history of ESTRACK goes back to the ESRO time.

Once upon a time ...

ESRO decided to build 4 stations:

Belgium: Redu Station
19.02.1965, Redu, located in the heart of the Belgian Ardennes, is selected to be one of the four ground stations of the ESTRACK network to track ESA satellites.

Agreement concerning the TT&C station at Redu was signed with the Belgian government on 19.04.1966. The station is declared operational on 31.12.1967.

Fairbanks in Alaska
An agreement was signed on 28.11.1966 between US and ESRO by Exchange of Letters concerning the Establishment and Operations of a Satellite Telemetry-Telecommand Station.

Fairbanks was the sister TT&C station to Redu, being, until decommissioned in 1972, a fixed facility for polar-orbit taking and telecommand functions.

The agreement required ESRO to supply, against reimbursement by the US, raw and reduced data from the station after ESRO experimenters' prior right of use had been exhausted.

Norway: Kongsfjord Telemetry Station
Agreement for (temporary) station on Spitsbergen.

Falkland Islands off the coast of Argentina
Agreement for (temporary) station on the Falklands.

For the ESRO Falklands telemetry station, the UK took on all building obligations at ESRO's expenses and the UK Science Research Counsil (which ran a radio and space research station nearby) was to be the contract operator..