Since the very dawn of time, people have been driven by the need to explore. Constantly pushing forward the limits of knowledge, the desire to cross into the frontier of the unknown remains undiminished. A journey into space was part of that dream. That was until it became a reality during the course of the last three decades - Yuri Gagarin’s first trip into space in 1961 and of course Neil Armstrong’s one small step for man barely eight years later. Since then long stays on Soviet and Russian spacecraft and repeated flights by the American Space Shuttle provide ample proof that other major milestones in the conquest of space have been passed. And without doubt many more to come. But ever since the early sixties when space exploration began in earnest, one thing has remained unchanged, as Antonio Rodata, the new Italian Director General of the European Space Agency is the first to admit, albeit with a reluctant shrugging of the shoulders.

"The truth of the matter is that NASA remains far better known than ESA. And I have made it one of my main priorities since taking up my position in the July of last year to ensure that the European Space Agency at least sits on a par with NASA - even though their budget is five times as large as ours’".

The European Space Agency, born back in 1975, is an international organization whose task is to provide for and to promote cooperation among European states in space research and technology and their space applications. But only for exclusively peaceful purposes. There are 14 member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Its brief is wide-ranging indeed, ESA’s involvement spanning the fields of space science, Earth observation, telecommunications, space segment technologies including orbital stations and platforms, ground infrastructures and space transportation systems, as well as basic research in microgravity. ESA’s headquarters are situated in the French capital, where are staff of some 300 oversee the broad structure of the various programmes.

At the moment Antonio Rodata is a happy man. Because the vast majority of those member states which were going flat out to meet the Maastricht criteria have apparently been accepted for European Monetary Union which, Rodata hopes, means that the current round of belt-tightening might well slacken off, at least for a while. And even though Great Britain was not one of those seeking to embrace EMU, Rodata has detected a noticeable change of attitude since Tony Blair took Downing Street by storm last year.

"The Thatcher years saw Britain’s budgetary contribution decrease significantly", Rodata affirms, "her philosophy being that if the private sector could get on with it, then they should. In my view this was a mistake, because companies such as Marconi and British Aerospace, which had been heavily involved, almost disappeared from the ESA scene once public funding was reduced, which was a great shame. But much more positive noises are emerging from Whitehall now - and that is something which I very much welcome, as you would expect. But despite that my country’s contribution to ESA remains fixed at 12.2% - which is almost double Great Britain’s." (In fact France provides the greatest pro-rata contribution at 30.1%.)

At the heart of Rodata’s approach to space lies his desire to bring it back down to earth. And with a bump if needs be. "Space is continuing to become a more and more important part of our lives - telecommunications, navigation systems and so on - but my task is to demonstrate that we exist in the real world - that being successful in space is all about being successful down here on earth. For at the end of the day its all about creating new jobs and improving the quality of life for ordinary people."

Graduating from Rome University in electronic engineering back in 1959, Rodata, who will see ESA into the twenty-first century, began his career in industry before being nominated as Italian delegate to NATO - also in Paris. He then moved back to his native Italy for the best part of 25 years, where he worked with Selenia, followed by three years as head of Compagnia Nazionale Satelliti.

It was during this time that Rodata caught the space bug. He has never been able to shake it off ever since. Nor does he have any intention of seeking out an appropriate remedy for this addiction, for he lives, eats and breathes space.

"I grew up in the small town of Cosenza in southern Italy - so space exploration wasn’t exactly high on the agenda", Rodata says with a grin. "But as soon as I began working in the field I was immediately hooked."

But wouldn’t some of ESA’s 1998 budget of £1,944,000,000 be put to better use in development projects down here on earth? With Rodata in full flow about the merits of space exploration programmes its the kind of question one is more than a little reluctant to ask.

"That’s a fair question", he replies, somewhat disarmingly. "Because when it comes to space, its a difficult thing for people to relate to. That’s why its important for me to get the message across that space has reduced the cost of a number of services in the world. Take the price of trans-Atlantic telephone calls, for example. A few years ago a call from Europe to the States would cost you a fortune - today it has become much more affordable. You can thank satellites for that. Its the same thing when it comes to the discovering the hole in the ozone layer - something of vast importance to the planet as a whole. But these are political issues - and as such not something for me. All I can say is that you can’t avoid asking questions about the nature of the universe - to do otherwise would be to lose something which goes to the very core of man. At the same time, however, I do appreciate that we must also concentrate on research that does have real applications in the real world. That’s something which I am very much aware of."

Not that its all been plain space-sailing for ESA. Far from it. On 4^th June 1996, the first qualification Ariane 5 launcher lifted-off from French Guyana, only to explode some 30 seconds later with its precious cargo of four identical satellites (the Cluster mission). An official report pointed to specification and design errors in the software of its navigation programme. Nor were technical difficulties the only problems facing the Ariane programme. For whereas in the past Ariane enjoyed the lion’s share of satellite launches, there are now an increasing number of American and Russian launchers on the market. Far from running scared of the opposition, however, Rodata embraces the new challenges:

"Competition is a good thing. For one thing it demonstrates that the market is expanding. And its teaching us here at ESA that we in Europe have to be vertically orientated, that is to say that the launcher is to be part of a broader system that includes satellites and other services. There might be question marks over Ariane in some quarters - but I intend to ensure that they are deleted."

Press Rodata just a little and he will confess to you that he spend a not insignificant amount of his time neither in space nor on earth. For virtually every week he shuttles back down to Rome to see his wife and family, whose lives have been turned upside down since his departure for France. Freed from family commitments, however - at least during the working week - Rodata has been packing in the hours, often completing grueling 15 hour days. Whilst a passionate fan of classical and chamber music, Rodata has not had much time to take advantage of the many cultural delights of the French capital, an omission which he intends to rectify in due course.

When in Rome, though, he hardly does as other Romans do. For he soon has his 23 year old daughter Flavia bending his ear about each and every matter relating to space, hardly surprising, really, when you consider that she is currently studying space engineering.

"That’s the wonderful thing about the world in which I work", he concludes. "For space is not only about tomorrow - its more than tomorrow. It keeps you young - if you ask me its the answer to perpetual youth! Flavia shares that view and, as you can imagine, I am very proud that she appears to be following in my moon boots! On a more serious note, in my view the scientific side of our programme is not the most important thing. The expertise is there. What matters to me most of all is to ensure that there is a link between each and every aspect of our work and what I refer to as a certain core set of decent ethical values. Because to me that is what the work of the European Space Agency is all about."