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Europe in space (9)
Excerpt from: A history of the European Space Agency, 1958 - 1987
In spring 1973 the doomed Europa program was continuing its course, somewhat like a beheaded duck. The Blue Streak for the F12 launch was in storage in Kourou. Worse, four more Blue Streak, from F13 to F16, had been build. Two more were only spares.
Discussions over the second package deal were difficult. In the end it boiled down to three major projects: Ariane, the Agena tug, and Marots. At first glance the idea of an Agena tug riding atop an Ariane made a lot of sense. It had its share of issues, though. Bluntly, the French did not wanted Lockheed or NASA engineers hanging around Ariane pads in Kourou. By the way Ariane timing was all wrong if flight testing of the tug was to be considered. Of course NASA could have flight-tested the Agena using a Delta or an Atlas or a Titan IIIB, but money was tight, as usual. There was no other solution than an interim European rocket.
A vague proposal was made to fly the tug as the second stage of an Europa Blue Streak, perhaps the never-launched F12 booster that rusted in Kourou. The technical and financial aspects, however, were daunting, and a torn in the side of Ariane-huggers. The Blue Streak Agena actually flew, but in Canada.
It was in this context that the idea of flying the space tug as the second stage of Diamant was proposed. The Agena fit the French launcher like a glove. It also solved the issues associated with the Ariane program, while the French national program would somewhat continue on the basis of a partnership with Germany and NASA space tug program. Hence was born DIAGONAL - DIamant - AGena - ONERA - Advanced - Launcher.
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“The so-called Second Package Deal was finalized in February 1973 in Brussels, after difficult negotiations and lot of budget bargaining. Rocket launchers were the trickier part. France, Belgium and Germany finally dropped Europa II and Europa III altogether. The L-IIIS – a downscaled Europa III best known as Ariane – become de facto Europe satellite launcher. The now moribund ELDO was to merge with its ESRO nemesis, creating the European Space Agency in the process.
Great Britain Marots communication satellite program was funded, as was Germany involvement in NASA post-Apollo program. The Agena space tug would gradually evolve into a fully-fledged space station logistic vehicle to be launched by France L-IIIS booster. The French had to make that concession: the tug would be tested on a modified Diamant, but growth variants would ultimately fly on the much larger L-IIIS, probably after 1980. The French set drastic conditions for that; the tug on L-IIIS was not a priority and should not interfere with early technical and commercial development of that booster.
Only five years later that rather unflexible position was to change drastically. In 1977 ESA member states could not agree on funding Ariane past the sixth booster. Another issue was that the European Space Agency by itself had not enough science and telecommunication satellites to "feed" Ariane flight manifest. The creation of Transpace, later Arianespace, by the French, was an answer to that crisis; but there, the proven Atlas Centaur ruled supreme, and commercial payloads were slow to come. Atlas Centaur was a superb, reliable launcher for the Intelsat satellites.
In this context, the French were more than happy to augment Ariane meagre flight manifest with Agena missions funded out of the tug program. In short, the ATV - Automated / Ariane / Agena Transfer Vehicle - supported Ariane at a crucial moment in its existence. Most of preliminary studies had already been done, and Agena integration on Ariane was straightforward.
Most of the Europa rockets that remained in the production line eventually ended in Canada through General Dynamics – despite France General Aubinière best effort to launch the Symphonie satellites with them.
Ironically, had Aubinière efforts paid, they would have undermined France case for the L-IIIS. A former boss of the CNES and the last boss of ELDO, General Aubinière was convinced he could make Europa II reliable enough to risk Symphonie to fly on it. It happened that final cancellation of Europa forced Symphonie to fly on American Delta rockets; but, since that satellite was a competitor to Intelsat, Europe was forgiven any commercial use. It was these harsh conditions that allowed France to convince a reluctant Germany that the L-IIIS was mandatory.