Technological risks and political challenges: the emergence of Luxembourg’s satellite policy

In the early 1970s, in a bid to diversify its economy – at that time primarily based on a declining steel industry and a still nascent international financial centre –, the Luxembourg government decided to invest in the country’s audiovisual sector and to pursue a policy to develop telecommunications satellites that would be used to broadcast European television programmes. This ambitious yet risky objective represented a major challenge in five specific areas: in technological terms (choosing to invest in medium-range rather than the more dominant long-range satellites), in political terms (o... Mehr ...