A busy time for ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre in the Netherlands, seen in this vintage photo from March 1977.

The first Italian telecommunications satellite, SIRIO-1 (Satellite Italiano per la Ricerca Industriale Orientata), is seen about to be placed in the Test Centre’s Heat Balance Facility 2 – the cylindrical thermal vacuum chamber laying open behind it.

The 400-kg satellite went on to be launched into geostationary orbit by a US Delta 2312 launcher in August that year. SIRIO-1 tested novel frequency bands from orbit for commercial use, helping pave the way for Europe’s telecom satellite industry.

Historical space photographs and publications from 1977 have just been added to ESA’s Space Heritage Image Project, SHIP. Collections from extra years are being added every few months, to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of European cooperation in space.

In 1964 the first European space organisations were founded: ELDO (the European Launcher Development Organisation) and ESRO (the European Space Research Organisation). These forerunners of ESA were merged after just over a decade, in 1975, to form today’s European Space Agency.