Roy Gibson

Last updated

Roy Gibson
BEM
Born (1924-07-04) 4 July 1924 (age 100)
Manchester, England
NationalityBritish
Known forDirector General of European Space Agency
Awards Allan D. Emil Memorial Award (1983)
Scientific career
Fields Aerospace engineering
Institutions European Space Agency
European Space Research Organisation

Roy Gibson (born 4 July 1924) is a British former aerospace engineer. He served as Director General of ESRO, and the first Director General of ESA, serving from 1975 until 1980.

Contents

Early years

Gibson was born in Manchester on 4 July 1924, and educated at Chorlton High School [1] and at the Universities of Oxford and London (London School of Economics).

Early in World War II, Gibson joined the Home Guard, although underage, and subsequently joined the Army as a volunteer at age 18. After officer training at Catterick and commissioning into the Royal Signals, he served with Mountbatten's headquarters in India and Ceylon from 1944 during the Burma Campaign. Late in the campaign, Gibson was posted to Akyab Island and then to Rangoon immediately after the Japanese had evacuated from there. [1]

From 1948 to 1958, he served in the British Colonial Administrative Service in Malaya.

Career

Gibson returned to London to work at the UK Atomic Energy Authority until 1967. He became Deputy Director of the ESRO Technical Centre (ESTEC), until 1971 when he became Director of Administration for ESRO. From 1974 he was Acting Director General of ESRO, and oversaw the transition of the two previous organisations ESRO and ELDO to form the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1975.

Gibson was the first Director General of the British National Space Centre from 1985 to 1987. From 1987 to 1992 he worked at INMARSAT, and then at EUMETSAT. [2] Since then he has served as an aerospace consultant to the ESA and the EU Commission, and has worked on the setting up of the European Environment Agency.

In 1977, Gibson received the Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria. [3]

Later life

Gibson turned 100 on 4 July 2024. [4]

He was awarded the British Empire Medal [5] in the King's 2025 honours list for his services to space.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Operations Centre</span> Main mission control centre for the European Space Agency

The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of uncrewed spacecraft on behalf of ESA and the launch and early orbit phases (LEOP) of ESA and third-party missions. The Centre is also responsible for a range of operations-related activities within ESA and in cooperation with ESA's industry and international partners, including ground systems engineering, software development, flight dynamics and navigation, development of mission control tools and techniques and space debris studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Agency</span> European organization dedicated to space exploration

The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 22-member intergovernmental body devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, the ESA was founded in 1975. Its 2023 annual budget was €11 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esrange</span> Spaceport in northern Sweden

Esrange Space Center is a rocket range and research centre located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the aurora borealis, sounding rocket launches, and satellite tracking, among other things. Located 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by a vast wilderness, its geographic location is ideal for many of these purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian Space Agency</span> Italian government agency

The Italian Space Agency is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entities who are active in aerospace research and technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Reiter</span> German test pilot, airman and astronaut (born 1958)

Thomas Arthur Reiter is a retired European astronaut and is a Brigadier General in the German Air Force currently working as ESA Interagency Coordinator and Advisor to the Director General at the European Space Agency (ESA). He was one of the top 25 astronauts in terms of total time in space. With his wife and two sons he lives near Oldenburg in Lower Saxony.

The Austrian Space Agency, officially known since 2005 as the Aeronautics and Space Agency, is an organization whose purpose is to coordinate Austrian space exploration-related activities. It has been involved in both national programmes and multinational efforts coordinated via the European Space Agency (ESA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Research Organisation</span> International organisation (1964-75); predecessor to the European Space Agency

The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a previously existing international scientific institution, CERN. The ESRO convention, the organisations founding document outlines it as an entity exclusively devoted to scientific pursuits. This was the case for most of its lifetime but in the final years before the formation of ESA, the European Space Agency, ESRO began a programme in the field of telecommunications. Consequently, ESA is not a mainly pure science focused entity but concentrates on telecommunications, earth observation and other application motivated activities. ESRO was merged with ELDO in 1975 to form the European Space Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Research and Technology Centre</span> European Space Agency technology complex

The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, although several kilometers off the village but immediately linked to the most Northern district of the nearby town Katwijk.

Reimar Lüst was a German astrophysicist. He worked in European space science from its beginning, as the scientific director of the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) from 1962 and as Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) from 1984 until 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andreas Mogensen</span> Danish engineer and astronaut (born 1976)

Andreas Enevold "Andy" Mogensen is a Danish engineer and ESA astronaut who is best known for being the first Dane to fly in space as part of the European Space Agency's Iriss program. Mogensen has also been involved in a number of other space-related projects throughout his career, including working as a test engineer for ESTEC and as a member of the European Astronaut Corps. In addition to his work with ESA, he has also worked with NASA and other international space agencies. Mogensen returned to space in August 2023 for his second spaceflight to the ISS onboard SpaceX Crew Dragon as the first non-American to serve as a pilot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Director General of the European Space Agency</span>

The Director General of the European Space Agency is the highest-ranked official of the European Space Agency (ESA), a space agency formed by the collaboration of prominent European nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enlargement of the European Space Agency</span>

The European Space Agency (ESA) was founded in 1975 when the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) merged with the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO). The ESA Convention was signed by the ESRO and ELDO members on 30 May 1975 and by Ireland on 31 December 1975. Canada signed a Cooperation Agreement on 9 December 1978. The Convention entered into force on 30 October 1980 after the ratification procedures in the 10 ESRO/ELDO members were finalised.

The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) is an executive agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the United Kingdom's civil space programme. It was established on 1 April 2010 to replace the British National Space Centre (BNSC) and took over responsibility for government policy and key budgets for space exploration; it represents the United Kingdom in all negotiations on space matters. The Agency "[brings] together all UK civil space activities under one single management". It is based at the Harwell Campus near Didcot.

Telespazio UK Ltd. is a British space company based in Luton, Bedfordshire. Founded in 1978 by a small group of engineers at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, VEGA presently works with various space agencies, satellite operators and manufacturers around the world. It works with the European Space Agency (ESA) and ESOC in Germany, European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, ESA Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) in Rome, Italy, and European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Madrid, Spain.

An Oral History of British Science is an oral history project conducted by National Life Stories at the British Library. The project began in 2009 with funding from the Arcadia Fund, the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and a number of other private donors and focuses on audio interviews with British science and engineering figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tromsø Satellite Station</span> Satellite earth station in Tromsø, Norway

Tromsø Satellite Station, until 1988 known as Tromsø Telemetry Station, is a satellite earth station located in Tromsø, Norway. The facility is owned by Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), a joint venture between the Kongsberg Group and the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC). In addition to hosting its own antennas serving thirty satellites, TSS acts as the center-point of KSAT's operations and provides backbone services for the high Arctic Svalbard Satellite Station (SvalSat) and the Antarctic Troll Satellite Station (TrollSat).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Agency Science Programme</span> Science programme

The Science Programme of the European Space Agency is a long-term programme of space science and space exploration missions. Managed by the agency's Directorate of Science, The programme funds the development, launch, and operation of missions led by European space agencies and institutions through generational campaigns. Horizon 2000, the programme's first campaign, facilitated the development of eight missions between 1985 and 1995 including four "cornerstone missions" – SOHO and Cluster II, XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and Herschel. Horizon 2000 Plus, the programme's second campaign, facilitated the development of Gaia, LISA Pathfinder, and BepiColombo between 1995 and 2005. The programme's current campaign since 2005, Cosmic Vision, has so far funded the development of ten missions including three flagship missions, JUICE, Athena, and LISA. The programme's upcoming fourth campaign, Voyage 2050, is currently being drafted. Collaboration with agencies and institutions outside of Europe occasionally occur in the Science Programme, including a collaboration with NASA on Cassini–Huygens and the CNSA on SMILE.

Anupam Ojha is a British space exploration administrator employed at the UK Space Agency. He is a Director of the National Space Centre, serves on the Science and Technology Facilities Council, as a member of the European Space Agency Human Spaceflight and Exploration Science Advisory Committee (HESAC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massimo Trella</span> Italian engineer

Massimo Trella was an Italian engineer, with a Master degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, who has held numerous prestigious institutional positions in Italy and abroad in the space exploration field. He was a member of ASI, director of ESTEC and Inspector General of ESA.

References

  1. 1 2 Lean, Thomas (21 May 2010). "Roy Gibson" (PDF). NATIONAL LIFE STORIES AN ORAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SCIENCE. British Library . Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  2. Godwin, Matthew (5 December 2007). "Interview with Roy Gibson" (PDF). Oral history of Europe in space. European Space Agency. p. 5. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  3. "Reply to a parliamentary question" (PDF) (in German). p. 488. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  4. "ESA's first Director General at 100". ESA. 4 July 2024. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  5. "UK celebrates unsung heroes and community champions in HM The King's New Year Honours list".

Sources