From Concept to Launch

Abstract

I had joined ESA in january 1980. I had a degree in theoretical physics, and arrived with a PhD from the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. My research had been in Nobel Laureate Sir Martin Ryle’s radio astronomy group, where I had been investigating the nature of distant radio-emitting galaxies.

Projects prosper if there is a powerful, centralised, unified project management team in place, with a project manager who is responsible for the project from cradle to grave. Once this manager has become familiar with the proposed task, the first essential job is to specify the resources of money, staff, time, and facilities required for completion and to offer milestones of achievement along the way. The whole undertaking is likely to take many years, during which period none of the key staff should change. If the task is successfully accomplished in the time and with the resources they specified, a double promotion should be the reward; if they fail to deliver, retirement may well be appropriate. By contrast, insufficient authority for the management team, with frequent changes of its personnel, is a sure recipe for disaster.

Professor Sir Hermann Bondi, letter to The Times, 31 May 1995